Neutron stars

star growth

In the universe we find in multiple objects that it is still difficult for us to understand both their characteristics and their origin. One of them is the neutron star. It is a celestial object that weighs a hundred million tons. It has a practically incomprehensible density of neutrons and a strange color. Having this density, it exerts an enormous gravitational force all around it. These stars are totally extraordinary and worth studying.

Therefore, we are going to dedicate this article to tell you all the characteristics, operation and origin of neutron stars.

What are neutron stars

neutron stars

Any star that is massive enough is capable of becoming a neutron star. This makes it the process of conversion into a neutron star is not extraordinary. They are the densest known objects in the entire universe. When a star that is massive exhausts all its nuclear fuel, its core begins to become somewhat more unstable. It is then where the gravity of so much mass destroys all the atoms around it with force.

Since there is no longer fuel to produce nuclear fusion, there is no counter force for gravity. This is how the nucleus becomes increasingly dense to such an extent that electrons and protons fuse into neutrons. You might think that, in these cases, gravity could continue to act ad infinitum. If there is any type of force that holds it back, the object becomes more and more dense and gravity would be infinite. However, the degeneracy pressure is due to the quantum nature of the particles and allows this dense neutron star to form without collapsing in on itself.

Instead of collapsing, neutron stars become very hot so that protons and electrons can bond together and form neutrons. By having the core of the star a a temperature of 10 raised to 9 degrees Kelvin produces the photo-disintegration of the materials that compose it. You could say that all this nuclear chaos that occurs in the formation of neutron stars is more complex and violent than in a conventional star. And it is that it has a lot of energy that is generated in a cyclical way until it reaches a maximum density.

Core of neutron stars

neutron star formation

If the core of a neutron star had too great a mass, it is likely that it could collapse and form a black hole. In fact, many scientists think that the origin of a black hole comes from here. When enough pressure is reached to stop the contraction, the star loses its upper layers and goes into a violent supernova. The process continues but the star is slowly cooling down. This is due to photodecay. When the final phases are reached, almost all the matter that existed in the star has already been converted into neutrons.

If the core of the star has too great a mass, a black hole can form. In the case of stars, this process stops sooner since the degenerated pressure keeps the particles too close together but without losing their nature. In this way, neutron stars are the ones that mark the limit of the densest matter that exists in the entire universe.

Not only are they the densest objects, but they are also one of the brightest elements in the universe. It can be said that it has a special brightness like that of pulsars. When neutron stars spin at too high a speed, they emit high-energy rays. In observation, These rays are interpreted as if it were a lighthouse in a port. All of these energy emissions are made intermittently and similar to that of pulsars. These stars can rotate several hundred times per second. They do so at such a speed that the equator of the same star becomes deformed and stretched during the spin. If not for the enormous gravity, the stars would be shattered by the centrifugal force that arises from the spin.

What's around

We already know what neutron stars are and how they work. Now we must know what is around them. Around them the gravity caused by the anomaly is so great that time passes at a different speed. This speed of time looks different to those within its field. Is about a manifestation of the nature of the space-time that surrounds us.

Due to this amount of gravity, many of the celestial objects around it are attracted and become part of the star.

Curiosities

gravity and dense objects

Let's see some of the curiosities that exist about this type of massive stars:

  • The neutron star is formed by the fuel depletion of a massive star.
  • A neutron star fragment the size of a sugar cube contains the same amount of mass as the entire human population at one time.
  • If our sun could crush to a density equal to that of neutron stars, it would occupy the same volume as Everest.
  • The great amount of gravity in this place causes a temporary dilation that makes the surface of the neutron star passes 30% slower than on Earth.
  • If a human being falls on the surface of these kinds of stars, it would produce a 200 megaton burst of energy.
  • Neutron stars that spin at high speed emit courses of radiation and are therefore called pulsars.
  • If our sun to another fuel completely or and the explosive power of nuclear fusion, the pull of gravity would be such that matter would end up collapsing under its own gravity.

I hope that with this information you can learn more about neutron stars, their characteristics and how they work.


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