Some massive stars can fade away and collapse into a black hole quietly without exploding as a supernova.

We used to think all giant stars ended with a massive explosion called a supernova. But astronomers recently watched a star 25 times more massive than our Sun simply vanish. It flared up briefly and then disappeared. Instead of exploding, the star's core collapsed directly into a black hole, leaving only a faint red glow of dust. It literally went out with a whimper instead of a big bang.