The Story of The End of a Star

The end of a star depends on its mass. Small stars like our Sun expand into red giants, shed outer layers, and become white dwarfs. Massive stars undergo supernova explosions, leaving behind neutron stars or collapsing into black holes.

Massive stars end their lives in a spectacular event called a supernova. During this process, the star's core collapses under gravity, causing a tremendous explosion that releases an immense amount of energy. This explosion can outshine an entire galaxy for a brief period. The remnant can become a neutron star or, if the core is massive enough, collapse into a singularity, forming a black hole.

A star turns into a neutron star during the later stages of a supernova explosion. When a massive star exhausts its nuclear fuel, the core collapses under gravity. If the remaining mass after the collapse is between about 1.4 and 3 times the mass of the Sun, it forms a neutron star. This collapse causes protons and electrons to merge into neutrons, resulting in an incredibly dense and compact object composed mostly of neutrons. Neutron stars are fascinating due to their extreme density and unique physical properties.

A star turns into a black hole when it undergoes a supernova, and the core's mass exceeds a critical value called the Chandrasekhar limit, approximately 2.5 to 3 solar masses. If the core mass surpasses this limit, gravity overwhelms all forces, causing the core to collapse into a singularity—a point of infinite density surrounded by an event horizon, marking the boundary beyond which nothing, not even light, can escape. This results in the formation of a black hole.