Round 10: Tossup 2

These astronomical objects can form either directly or through fallback that occurs due to the deceleration of a shock front. Pairs of these objects have produced larger characteristic strains at lower frequencies than BNS events. These objects’ distribution has an “upper mass gap” because they cannot form from low-metallicity progenitors susceptible to pair-instability. These objects are the most massive (*) accretors in X-ray binaries and the most massive objects whose mergers have been detected by LIGO. Weak (-5[1])neutrino shocks lead to the formation of these objects during “failed supernovae,” in which an iron core from a progenitor heavier than a few solar masses collapses into one of them. For 10 points, proto-neutron stars that exceed the TOV limit (10[1])become what objects from which light cannot (10[1])escape? ■END■ (10[1])

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