23 Facts About Neutron stars

Neutron stars have a radius on the order of 10 kilometres and a mass of about 1.

Neutron stars are partially supported against further collapse by neutron degeneracy pressure, a phenomenon described by the Pauli exclusion principle, just as white dwarfs are supported against collapse by electron degeneracy pressure.

However, most are old and cold and radiate very little; most neutron stars that have been detected occur only in certain situations in which they do radiate, such as if they are a pulsar or part of a binary system.

Slow-rotating and non-accreting neutron stars are almost undetectable; however, since the Hubble Space Telescope detection of RX J185635-3754 in the 1990s, a few nearby neutron stars that appear to emit only thermal radiation have been detected.

One measure of such immense gravity is the fact that neutron stars have an escape velocity of over half the speed of light.

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Neutron stars star has some of the properties of an atomic nucleus, including density and being composed of nucleons.

The density of a nucleus is uniform, while neutron stars are predicted to consist of multiple layers with varying compositions and densities.

Variations in magnetic field strengths are most likely the main factor that allows different types of neutron stars to be distinguished by their spectra, and explains the periodicity of pulsars.

Current understanding of the structure of neutron stars is defined by existing mathematical models, but it might be possible to infer some details through studies of neutron-star oscillations.

Neutron stars are usually observed to pulse radio waves and other electromagnetic radiation, and neutron stars observed with pulses are called pulsars.

Radiation emanating from the magnetic poles of neutron stars can be described as magnetospheric radiation, in reference to the magnetosphere of the neutron star.

The majority of neutron stars detected, including those identified in optical, X-ray, and gamma rays, emit radio waves; the Crab Pulsar produces electromagnetic emissions across the spectrum.

However, there exist neutron stars called radio-quiet neutron stars, with no radio emissions detected.

Neutron stars rotate extremely rapidly after their formation due to the conservation of angular momentum; in analogy to spinning ice skaters pulling in their arms, the slow rotation of the original star's core speeds up as it shrinks.

Sometimes neutron stars absorb orbiting matter from companion stars, increasing the rotation rate and reshaping the neutron star into an oblate spheroid.

Neutron stars are mostly concentrated along the disk of the Milky Way, although the spread perpendicular to the disk is large because the supernova explosion process can impart high translational speeds to the newly formed neutron star.

Neutron stars are only detectable with modern technology during the earliest stages of their lives and are vastly outnumbered by older neutron stars that would only be detectable through their blackbody radiation and gravitational effects on other stars.

Neutron stars have been observed in binaries with ordinary main-sequence stars, red giants, white dwarfs, or other neutron stars.

The coalescence of binary neutron stars is one of the leading models for the origin of short gamma-ray bursts.

In seeking an explanation for the origin of a supernova, they tentatively proposed that in supernova explosions ordinary stars are turned into stars that consist of extremely closely packed neutrons that they called neutron stars.

Neutron stars were thought to be too faint to be detectable and little work was done on them until November 1967, when Franco Pacini pointed out that if the neutron stars were spinning and had large magnetic fields, then electromagnetic waves would be emitted.

Unbeknown to him, radio astronomer Antony Hewish and his research assistant Jocelyn Bell at Cambridge were shortly to detect radio pulses from stars that are now believed to be highly magnetized, rapidly spinning neutron stars, known as pulsars.

The majority of known neutron stars have been discovered as pulsars, emitting regular radio pulses.