A black hole is a region in space that is so strong that no particle or light can escape from it.
When a star burns through its remaining fuel, it may collapse, or fall into itself. For smaller stars (those up to about three times the sun's mass), the new core will become a neutron star or a white dwarf. But when a larger star collapses, it continues to compress and creates a stellar black hole.
| Types of black holes | Description |
|---|---|
| Stellar black holes | Black holes formed by the collapse of individual stars |
| Supermassive black holes | Supermassive black holes may be the result of hundreds or thousands of tiny black holes that merge together. Large gas clouds could also be responsible, collapsing together and rapidly accreting mass. |
| Intermediate black holes | Such bodies could form when stars in a cluster collide in a chain reaction. |