solar-masses

Solar masses within a few light weeks. Only a black hole allows the presence of so much mass in such a small region.

Stellar collapse will generate black holes containing at least three solar masses.

As that gas collapsed to a black hole, it pulled in more gas and dust from the disc, bulking up to a billion solar masses.

However, if the supernova remnant exceeds three solar masses, conventional physics suggests a black hole should be left behind.

None of them had a black hole of 2-5 solar masses living there, even after observational uncertainties were considered.

But at the centers of most galaxies lurk supermassive black holes weighing millions or even billions of solar masses.

The second category is the supermassive black holes found at the center of galaxies, each millions to billions of solar masses in size.

When the iron core of such a star reaches a mass of 1. 4 solar masses, the result is a supernova.

Observationally, the lightest black hole candidates are about six solar masses.

Stars smaller than eight solar masses simply expand into red giants and then dwindle away into white dwarfs.

Stellar black holes, equal to 3. 5 to about 15 solar masses, can be formed by the collapse of a single massive star.

The brightest object in the center of this image is designated Pismis 24-1 and was once thought to weigh as much as 200 to 300 solar masses.

For example, the sizes of black holes can vary immensely from a few to a few billions of solar masses!

But in stars bigger than 100 solar masses or so, there's a hitch.

There are only three such black holes known that weigh more than 15 solar masses.

In this way, black holes could consume as much as 10 solar masses of gas each year, Hopkins says.