Neutron Stars

What is a Neutron Star

Neutron stars are created when giant stars die in supernovas and their cores collapse, with the protons and electrons essentially melting into each other to form neutrons. Neutron stars are city-size (15-20 km in diameter) stellar objects with a mass about 1.4 times that of the sun.

What is the Density of a Neutron Star

A teaspoon of neutron star material would weigh about 10 million tons. The gravitational field is intense; the escape velocity is between 0.4 to 0.5 times (120,000-150,000 km/s) the speed of light!

Types of Neutron Star

Pulsar
A pulsar is a highly magnetized rotating neutron star that emits a beam of electromagnetic radiation. This radiation can be observed only when the beam of emission is pointing toward Earth, and is responsible for the pulsed appearance of emission.

Magnetar

A magnetar is neutron star that rotates so rapidly that due to dynamo effect it gets intense magnetic field, even stronger than pulsars. The field strength of a magnetar is one thousand trillion times stronger than Earth's and is so intense that it heats the surface to 10 million degrees Celsius.

What Happens When Two Neutron Stars Collide?

One of two things happens when neutron stars collide: they merge together to form a new, larger neutron star, or they collapse into a black hole. When they collide they send intense gravitational waves in all directions. If they collapse into black hole they will emit intense gamma ray burst across galaxy.

How Do the Neutron Stars Die


A neutron star does not evolve. It just cools down by emitting radiation. Since neutron star are born very hot they will just get colder and colder and never die, you'll only get a cold neutron star. It is estimated neutron star could keep radiating 100+ billions year but since universe is so young we have never observed one cooled down.

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