Tales behind Neutron Stars
Picture of "Neutron Star" from Chandra Laboratories, permission given by Chandra Laboratories.
What are Neutron Stars?
Neutron Stars are stars that consists mainly of neutrons. According to Chris Miller, "Neutron stars are very dense and spin very fast and are typically only 10-15 km in radius" (1).
Properties of Neutron Stars
Neutron stars are several different properties. One property is neutron stars do not glow like regular stars. The reason for this is that since neutron stars form from burnt-out stars, they do not have enough fuel to perform nuclear reactions thus releasing enough energy to glow. Another property of neutron stars is that they are very dense, which means that they are very compact. This property results in the neutron star's core's gravitational force to be very powerful. The gravitational force of a neutron star is so powerful, that if you drop a marshmallow from the atmosphere in a neutron star, the impact of the marshmallow to the surface of the neutron star would comparable to that of a small atomic bomb hitting the earth's surface. Neutron stars also tend to be about the size of a planet, with a diameter of about 10 miles (16 km).
Besides emitting radio waves, a neutron star also emits intense X-rays. In fact, Neutron stars emits some of the strongest X-rays in our galaxy. Out of all the properties of a neutron star, though, the most powerful property is a neutron star emits a strong magnetic field around the star. This strong magnetic field, scientists say, is so strong that they could literally squeeze and atoms and make them smaller. Also, along with rotation, the magnetic field can produce potential differences of trillions of volts. This electrical difference can result in a deadly blizzard of high energy particles.
How are Neutron Stars formed?
When star has completely used up its fuel, it begins to collapse inwardly due to the gravitational force in its inner core. During this process, the star's surface matter begins to convert itself into neutrons. Then, when the stars has become very small, it violently supernovas, and its inner core collapses. The ending result of this stage is a neutron star, which has a diameter of about 10 miles.
History of Neutron Stars
The history of neutron stars starts back in the early 1930s. At that time, scientists only thought of neutron stars as theoretical. It wasn't until 1933, that neutron stars were actually considered to be existing. Two astronomers by the name of Baade and Zwicky predicted that neutron stars actually existed at this time.
The Chandrasekhar Limit
There a lot of theories in the field of Neutron Stars. Of all the theories present the one that has been proven is the idea of the Chandrasekhar Limit. Produced by Subramanyan Chandrasekhar, the theory states that any star that has a mass of 1.44 solar masses (that means that the star is 1.44 times as massive as the sun) will collapse and become a neutron star.
Pulsars
Out of all the neutron stars that have been identified, the pulsar is the one most frequent to be identified. A pulsar is a rotating neutron stars that emits distinct radio waves in pulses. Now you may think, "Does a pulsar turn its radio waves on and off?" That is not necessarily the case. The truth is that since a pulsar is a neutron star that rotates, and since it only emits radio waves from the North and South poles of the star, it seems that it is giving off radio waves in pulses, when it actually isn't.
Pulsars usually have diameters of about 16 km. Scientists say that these stars probably rotate once per pulsation period. The pulsar is as dense as a neutron star, some say.
