Either the heaviest-known neutron star or the lightest-known black hole: LIGO-Virgo finds mystery object in 'mass gap'
Tuesday, June 23, 2020 - 11:14
in Astronomy & Space
When the most massive stars die, they collapse under their own gravity and leave behind black holes; when stars that are a bit less massive die, they explode in a supernova and leave behind dense, dead remnants of stars called neutron stars. For decades, astronomers have been puzzled by a gap that lies between neutron stars and black holes: the heaviest known neutron star is no more than 2.5 times the mass of our sun, or 2.5 solar masses, and the lightest known black hole is about five solar masses. The question remained: does anything lie in this so-called mass gap?