Neutron Stars
Did You Know?
A teaspoon of neutron star material would weigh 6 billion tons on Earth!
What Are Neutron Stars?
Neutron stars are the collapsed cores of massive stars that exploded as supernovae. They're incredibly dense - a neutron star the size of a city has more mass than the Sun. The gravity is so intense that atoms are crushed, with electrons forced into atomic nuclei to form neutrons. This is why they're called neutron stars. They're among the densest objects in the universe, second only to black holes.
Formation
Neutron stars form when stars between 8 and 20 solar masses exhaust their nuclear fuel. The core collapses under gravity, crushing atoms together. The collapse is halted when the core becomes so dense that neutrons resist further compression. The outer layers are blown away in a supernova explosion, leaving behind the neutron star core.
Extreme Properties
Neutron stars have extreme properties. They can rotate hundreds of times per second, have magnetic fields a trillion times stronger than Earth's, and have surface temperatures of millions of degrees. Some neutron stars emit beams of radiation as they rotate, becoming pulsars. The intense gravity causes time to slow down near their surfaces, a prediction of Einstein's general relativity.
Amazing Facts
Neutron stars are only 20-30 km in diameter
This fact reveals the incredible scale and wonder of our universe.
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A neutron star's surface gravity is 100 billion times Earth's
This fact reveals the incredible scale and wonder of our universe.
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Neutron stars can have mountains only millimeters high
This fact reveals the incredible scale and wonder of our universe.
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Some neutron stars are pulsars
This fact reveals the incredible scale and wonder of our universe.
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