Massive Star Goes Out With a Whimper Instead of a Bang (Artist's Illustration) This illustration shows the final stages in the life of a supermassive star that fails to explode as a supernova but instead implodes under gravity to form a black hole. From left to right: the...NASA, ESA, and P. Jeffries (STScI) Astronomers have watched as a massive, dying star was likely reborn as a black hole. It took the combined power of the Large Binocular Telescope (LBT), and NASA's Hubble and Spitzer space te...