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Neutron Stars

A neutron star is the remains of a massive star that exploded. It is one of the densest objects known in the universe.

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How are white dwarfs neutron Stars and black holes alike?

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No. White dwarfs, neutron stars, and black holes are three different things. With the exception of some black holes, all are remnants of the cores of dead stars at various degrees of collapse.

A white dwarf is the remains of a low to medium mass star consisting of atomic nuclei surrounded by electrons from electron shells that were crushed by gravity. White dwarfs can be up to about two times the mass of the sun and are a few thousand miles across, some about the same size as Earth.

A neutron star is a remnant of a massive star that has collapsed even further. In a neutron star the atoms have been crushed so that neutrons are most of what remains. Neutron stars range from 2 to 3 times the mass of the sun and are roughly 12 to 25 miles across.

A black hole is the remains of a very massive star that has completely collapsed into, at least theoretically, an infinitely dense point. Around the black hole is an area where gravity is so strong that nothing can escape, not even light. Stellar mas black holes range from 3 to 30 times the mass of the sun. There are also supermassive black holes, which are millions to billions times the mass of the sun. It is not known how supermassive black holes form.

How much does a grain of salt weigh?

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A grain of rice weighs roughly 0.0725 ounces.

What is the process that creates a neutron star?

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the only reason a star stays 'alive' is because it creates enough outward force from nuclear fusion to fight off the force of gravity. when a star runs out of fuel, the main and first option being hydrogen, the easiest to use, to create power, it has two options. the star has to try to fuse helium which is a lot harder to do, and requires a lot more heat to do, then beryllium and so on up to carbon which a star cannot fuse. then, when the star runs out of fuel that it can burn, gravity pushes all of the solar mass to the core. this is how a supernova is started. if the core manages to handle the pressure, it turns into a white dwarf star, if the core collapses, then it turns into a spacial anomaly known as a black hole. the outcome is a result of the amount of solar mass.

What is the color of a neutron star and pulsar?

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Nebulas are usually reddish is color but it depends which nebular you are looking at, they are all different.

What is the weight of a penny on a neutron star?

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Two cubic meters of neutron star would have a mass of about 10^18 (1 quintillion) kilograms or about 1 quadrillion metric tons.

A spinning neutron star that appears to give off radio wave pulses is called a .?

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If the beam is directed towards Earth, it's called a Pulsar.

How hot is a neutron star?

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According to the Wikipedia, a newly formed neutron star would have a temperature of 1011 - 1012 Kelvin, but after a year, it will cool down to 106 (a million) Kelvin, due to the large number of neutrinos it emits.

What is a rapidly spinning neutron star called?

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A young neutron star. Really - that is what a neutron star is.

If the neutron star's magnetic field is pointed towards Earth, then it is referred to as a pulsar - because of it's rapid pulsations [See related question] but it is still a neutron star.

How do astronimers determine the composition of a star?

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The chemical composition of stars is determined by the emission lines present in the light from stars. The emission lines are characteristic of a given element. However, because of the Doppler effect and the numerous emission lines of some elements, this technique can be more difficult in practice than it appears.

How is a white dwarf different form a neutron star?

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A neutron star has slightly more mass than a white dwarf. This results in higher gravitational attraction. As a result, in a white dwarf, the star's mass (roughly the mass of the Sun - may vary in different white dwarves) has a diameter of a few thousand kilometers, and a density of a few tonnes per cubic centimeter. The neutron star, on the other hand, has a diameter of only 20-30 kilometers, and a density of millions of tonnes per cubic centimeter. For comparison, water has a density of 1 gram per cubic centimeter, other substances around us have similar densities; so the density of a white dwarf is millions of times the density of water, while a neutron star has billions of times the density of water.

When A neutron star is the densest substance in the universe What does it tell you about its mass and volume?

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It means it's mass is very high and its volume is very low. A standard neutron star has a mass thousands of times greater than the sun, but a volume of a small city. This ridiculously high density and pressure also account for the high temperatures of neutron stars. PS. Quark stars are denser than neutron.

What would happen if your sun was replaced by a pulsar?

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We would all be killed in the supernova explosion that created the pulsar out of our Sun. The Earth itself would be vaporized. Any returning space travelers would be fried by the intense pulses of gamma radiation that give the "pulsar" or "pulsing gamma ray source" its name.

However, this cannot happen - because our Sun isn't nearly massive enough to go supernova.

What gas does not t expand or contract?

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Down to something called the Avogadro Constant. It states that 1 mole of ANY gas will always occupy the same amount of space.

What would happen if more mass was added to a 1.4-solar-mass neutron star?

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Depends on the amount of mass that is added. In general it would probably either turn into a quark star, or if the mass is great enough a black hole.

Why will the sun never become a neutron star?

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The Sun will never leave behind a stellar remnant such as a neutron star, as it does not have enough mass to achieve the massive pressures required to make one.

Our Sun will end up as a white dwarf stellar remnant.

The density of a neutron star is?

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The neutron star's density varies from below 1×109 kg/m3 in the crust increasing with depth to above 6×1017 or 8×1017 kg/m3 deeper insideThis density is approximately equivalent to the mass of the entire human population compressed into the size of a sugar cube.

What is a small star that only gives of faint light and are cool?

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That can either be an old white dwarf, a red dwarf. or a brown dwarf.

Why is the Moon only visable at night?

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The moon is visible during the day but it is most visible at night and early morning, but it is somtimes visible throughout the day.

What is the average density of a neutron star that has the same mass as the sun?

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An object of one solar mass cannot become a neutron star.

How hot is a white flame?

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Oh, as far as I know, white fire is the hottest, so that leaves it in 1st place, blue 2nd, and orange in 3rd. And orange fire is the coldest you'll ever find!

How far back are you looking in the past when you look at the sun?

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On average about 8.333 minutes - depending on the time of year.

What do neutron stars emit?

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If a neutron star's rotational period is fast enough to produce jets (A pulsar), said jets will emit radio waves, with faster periods emitting higher frequency radiation as well as the jets themselves emitting synchrotron radiation. Also, unless the neutron star were 0K, it will emit thermal radiation

However, as far as a neutron star that isn't a pulsar, nobody knows if they emit anything but thermal radiation.