(Last edited: Saturday, 30 September 2023, 11:01 PM)
Short Definition:
A Neutron star is a celestial body
and is the collapsed core of a massive supergiant star that had a total mass of
about 10-25 solar masses. Compared to other stellar objects, they are much
smaller and much denser. Not counting black holes or hypothetical stellar
objects, they are the densest stellar object in the universe.
Detailed Definition:
A Neutron stars is a stellar object, which is only a few kilometres in
diameter, but has the mass of a star. So even compared to others stellar objects they have a mind-boggling density and are even so dense, that they are on the
cusp of becoming a black hole. Stars hold an equilibrium between the force of
gravity forcing plasma inwards, which in turn enables fusion of hydrogen to
helium, and this releases energy that pushes outwards. So the equilibrium is
directly linked to the amount of hydrogen available in stars. Breaking this equilibrium
in our sun would result in it transforming to a red giant and then to a white
dwarf. In those massive supergiant stars, gravity will prevail and will
compress the core to the density of an atomic nucleus, which in turn forces
heavier elements to fuse, and thus the outer layer will get bigger by a factor
of x100. After a time the heavier elements are fused to iron and can not be fused any more, so the fusion activity will cease, and the star will collapse to its
core. Electrons and Protons will be forced into each other and form Neutrons as
dense as in atomic nuclei, where nuclei are so densely packed, they form a
layer that is called nuclear pasta. Another interesting property is that they
are spinning really fast, which empowers their magnet fields and gives them the
strongest magnet field in our universe.
Etymology:
Neutron from Ne and uterà neutral +on ending from ion subatomic particle suffix
Star from Proto-Indo-European rooth₂stḗr
Sample Sentence(s):
The physics in
the core of the Neutron stars are still largely unknown and are still subject
of speculation.
Scientists were able to detect gravitational
waves of two merging Neutron stars and confirmed the theory of Albert Einstein.
