[Home]Neutron star

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A neutron star is the collapsed remnant of a Type II or Ibsupernova.

It has an structure than begins with an iron layer in the outside, going to atoms with increasingly more neutrons to the inside, and the core is superdense matter, whose exact nature is still not well understood, it could be a mixture or neutrons with a few protons and electrons, other high energy can be present, and even quark matter is possible.

Some neutron stars than can be observed are:

Neutron stars rotate extremely rapidly after their creation due to the conservation of angular momentum; like an ice skater pulling in his arms, the slow rotation of the original star's core speeds up as it shrinks. A newborn neutron star can rotate up to several thousand times per second, distorting into an oblate spheroid shape despite its own immense gravity. Over time, however, neutron stars slow down due to drag on their magnetic fields; older neutron stars may take several seconds or minutes for each revolution.

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Edited November 7, 2001 9:40 am by AstroNomer (diff)
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