Radius Calculator Scroll down for instructions. For information about the mass-luminosity relationship, click here.
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I N S T R U C T I O N S
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What is the event horizon of a black hole with 10 solar masses?
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Before we discuss the Schwarzchild radius, we first should discuss black holes.
In fact, a star with a mass that is less than 1.60 x 1031 kilograms (.08 the mass of the Sun) will never produce sufficient gravity to fuse hydrogen into helium.
When a star runs out of nuclear "fuel", the outward pressure declines and the star undergoes gravitational collapse.
A star with a mass .08 to .50 of the Sun, becomes a white dwarf.
A star with a mass .50 to 1.5 of the Sun increases in size, becoming a red giant, forming a planetary nebula, finally becoming a white dwarf.
A star with a mass 1.5 to 3.2 of the Sun increases in size, becoming a red super giant, then turns into a supernova. When a star's mass is this great, the gravitational collapse produces so much force that atoms can no longer exist and they become neutrons. Hence, a neutron star is formed.
If the neutron star is rapidly rotating, then it is a pulsar.
When a star has a mass of 3.2 Suns (or greater), the gravitational collapse creates a red super giant, then the star turns into a supernova. As the star collapses, the gravitational pressure becomes so intense that not even neutron structure can be retained and the star becomes a black hole, whereby the escape velocity is greater than the speed of light and not even light itself can escape that fierce gravitational field.
The Schwarzchild radius is named after Karl Schwarzchild (1873 - 1916), a German astronomer who was the first to formulate this concept. Solar Diameter = 1.39 x 10^9 meters.
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