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What Is a Neutron Star?
Quick Answer
A neutron star is the ultra-dense collapsed core of a massive star that exploded as a supernova.
The Full Story
When a star roughly 8 to 25 times the mass of the Sun exhausts its nuclear fuel, its core collapses under gravity while the outer layers are blown away in a supernova. The collapse crushes protons and electrons together into neutrons, forming an object only about 20 km across yet containing 1.4 to 2 times the Sun mass. A teaspoon of neutron-star material would weigh about 6 billion tonnes on Earth. Some neutron stars spin hundreds of times per second and emit beams of radiation — these are called pulsars.
Key Facts
1.The fastest known pulsar, PSR J1748-2446ad, spins 716 times per second.
2.Neutron stars have surface gravity about 2 billion times stronger than Earth.
3.The first pulsar was discovered in 1967 by Jocelyn Bell Burnell and initially nicknamed "LGM-1" (Little Green Men).
YouTube Angle
Suggested video title for this topic:
"Neutron Stars — The Densest Objects We Can Observe"
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