neutrontähte

Neutron stars are the incredibly dense remnants of massive stars that have exhausted their nuclear fuel and collapsed under their own gravity. When a star with a mass roughly eight to twenty times that of our Sun undergoes a supernova explosion, its core collapses to form a neutron star. The immense pressure forces protons and electrons to combine, forming neutrons. This process results in an object with a density so extreme that a teaspoonful would weigh billions of tons.

Despite their immense mass, neutron stars are typically only about 20 kilometers in diameter. They are among the most extreme objects in the universe, with incredibly strong magnetic fields and rapid rotation rates. Some neutron stars are observed as pulsars, emitting beams of electromagnetic radiation that sweep across space like a lighthouse beam as the star spins. If these beams are periodically detected on Earth, the neutron star appears to pulse.

Neutron stars are primarily composed of neutrons, but their exact internal structure is still a subject of research. Scientists theorize that the outer crust consists of a lattice of heavy atomic nuclei and free electrons, while the inner core may contain more exotic states of matter, such as a "superfluid" of neutrons or even deconfined quarks. Studying neutron stars provides valuable insights into the physics of matter under extreme conditions and the processes of stellar evolution.