Observations of VFTS 243 provide evidence that black holes can form directly from the collapse of massive stars, without a preceding supernova explosion.

A newly discovered binary star system, combined with cutting-edge models of stellar collapse, has shed light on how stellar-mass black holes form. An international team of researchers from the Max Planck Institute for Astrophysics and the Niels Bohr Institute (NBI) at the University of Copenhagen has found evidence that massive black holes can form without the dramatic supernova explosions traditionally associated with star death. Instead, the energy from the collapse is primarily carried away by lightweight neutrino particles, with minimal asymmetry. This results in only a small “natal kick” for the newly formed black hole.