Final answer:
Stars are believed to not grow beyond a few hundred solar masses due to radiation pressure pushing material away, the potential for massive cores to collapse into black holes, and surrounding environmental factors that can inhibit mass accumulation.
Step-by-step explanation:
Stars larger than a few hundred solar masses are not commonly found, and this limitation on stellar mass is thought to be caused by several factors. A key factor is that at extremely high masses, the radiation pressure emitted from the star becomes so powerful that it can push material away, preventing further accretion of mass. This force effectively limits how much mass a star can accumulate during its formation phase before excess is driven back into space.
Additionally, for stars with core masses exceeding approximately three times that of the Sun, no known force can prevent the core from collapsing under its own gravity to form a black hole. Massive stars also have short lifetimes and their supernovae can lead to the creation of black holes that may continue to grow by accreting surrounding materials. However, there are limits to how fast this accretion can occur due to the outward energy from the accretion disc pushing infalling matter away if the accretion rate gets too high.
It is also important to consider that the environment where a star forms, such as a dense cluster of stars and gas, can influence its growth. A massive star can become a black hole shortly after its formation, and if the gravitational influence of nearby stars is significant, it can prevent the black hole from forming an accretion disk, which in turn affects the black hole's ability to attract and accumulate mass from its surroundings.