Questions tagged [neutron-star]
Questions regarding a degenerate star that is mainly composed of neutrons.
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What does it mean for a proto-neutron star to be opaque to neutrinos?
I have read that a proto-neutron star is opaque to neutrinos but I do not really know what does means. Could someone explain this to me? I am a mathematician, not a physicist so I found it hard to ...
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1answer
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What is the relation between size (radius) of an astronomical object and the speed of oscillation of 'light' coming from it? (Strength/amplitude)?
From the year-end issue of New Scientist Magazine (Dec. 18-31,2021):
Astronomy:
'Space Cow' explosion was probably a failed supernova'
Page 10: 'They found that the strength of this radiation ...
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How would a cooled down neutron star look like when illuminated?
Assume we have a neutron start hat has cooled down so far that it no longer emits visible light. If we illuminate it with a powerful external light source, how would it look like? Would it reflect ...
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How big would a telescope have to be to get a good look at the nearest neutron star?
It's my understanding of observational astronomy that the size of a telescope limits its effective angular resolution, which is why scientists needed to use radio telescopes all over the globe to look ...
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What is the smallest neutron star radius possible?
According to the Chandrashekhar limit the minimum mass of a neutron star is about 1.44 solar masses, however I found some examples of neutron stars less massive than that.
Additionally, I thought that ...
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Why is the number density of neutrons much larger in neutron stars?
There is a particular argument given in Concepts In Thermal Physics by Blundell that I'm not able to understand:
A free neutron can decay with a mean life of about $15$ minutes but in stars, we have ...
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What's the mass distribution of elements created in neutron star mergers?
In charts like this, you'll see that a bunch of the heaviest elements mostly come from neutron star mergers. But what about the mass distribution of just the products of neutron star mergers? That is, ...
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Is there a mass-vs-radius chart for neutron stars?
I'm aware that we currently don't have an equation of state for the radius of a neutron star, because we don't know what happens to neutrons at their cores, and because the equations involved with ...
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In what year (2014?) the gravitational wave triggered by this merger was possibly generated?
Re: "A transient radio source consistent with a merger-triggered core collapse supernova"
https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.abg6037
Actually the described merger consisted of two ...
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Does the average proton/electron density in a neutron star change with mass?
My understanding is that although electron degeneracy prevents beta decay, there are still a few protons and electrons hanging around. I also understand that, at least in white dwarfs, as the mass ...
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Is "magnetars don't last long — just a year to a few years" really true? Is it a misquote or perhaps taken out of context?
NASA's Two Sides of the Same Star discusses the relationship between pulsars and magnetars and contains a video also linked below.
At 02:13 it quotes "Tom ...
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What does an electron-capture supernova leave behind? A white dwarf, a neutron star or nothing?
Somehow, none of the many articles I've read about the recent discovery of electron-capture supernovae has specifically said what they leave behind as remnants.....
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Are there black holes and neutron stars in satellite dwarf galaxies orbiting around Milky Way?
It is thought that the number of satellite dwarf galaxies orbiting around Milky Way is counted in hundreds.
Are there black holes and neutron stars in satellite dwarf galaxies orbiting around Milky ...
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Can we use asteroseismology to study neutron stars?
Asteroseismology study the propagation of sound waves inside a star to probe its internal structure. Could something similar be used to study the structure of neutron stars and put constraints on the ...
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Could observation of GL or other image phenomena from system of 2 merging massive dense objects and of GW caused by their merge be connected?
What is the probability to observe gravitational lensing (or any other image related phenomena) from the pair of black holes (or pair of neutron stars or black hole - neutron star) which are about to ...
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Can dark matter be normal matter after all? [duplicate]
MACHO's and RAMBO's are both baryonic (and leptonic) forms of matter that can't be observed by their nature. They barely emit or reflect light. Black holes, neutron stars, or brown dwarfs (or groups ...
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Is the smaller companion of Pulsar J0453+1559 still the smallest known neutron star? Was it further confirmed to be a NS after Martinez et al. (2015)?
@ProfRob's Physics SE answer to What is the theoretical lower mass limit for a gravitationally stable neutron star? was linked just now in their answer to Can a neutron star ever be less than about 1....
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What escape velocity would quark stars have?
Quark stars are hypothetical compact stars that are denser than neutron stars and maybe the last stage of upholding matter before stars that collapse into a singularity. Neutron stars have escape ...
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Can a neutron star ever be less than about 1.44 solar masses (the Chandrasekhar limit)? Why not?
I learned about the Chandrasekhar limit as being the UPPER limit, in terms of mass, for a white dwarf...
But, I have never heard of a neutron star being BELOW that mass, so I have wondered, recently, ...
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Is there anything different about the gravitation around a non-spinning black hole and a neutron star of the same mass?
If we perform a simple experiment by orbiting identical spacecraft around a non-rotating black hole and a non-rotating neutron star of equal mass at a "safe" distance, and ignore differences ...
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1answer
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Is something wrong with my luminosity calculation?
A few million years after a white dwarf forms, its surface temperature reaches $100000\text{K}$, while its radius is $0.01R_\odot$. Would this mean that its luminosity is $\Big(\dfrac{100000}{5778}\...
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Strange matter objects other than neutron stars?
This question is about celestrial objects which are composed by exotic matter, and exotic matter I define as
states of matter that are not commonly encountered such as Bose–Einstein condensates, ...
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1answer
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Are there any known neutron star - supergiant binaries?
After looking for more information about TZOs (Thorne-Zytkow Object), I came up with a question that I had trouble finding answers on the Internet. Do we know of any future TZOs, supergiants being ...
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Can a Thorne-Żytkow object be the progenitor of a modern quasi-star?
I was reading some Wikipedia articles about astronomy, and came across an interesting line:
The neutron star may also accrete sufficient material to collapse into a black hole.
Now, here is my ...
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Can mass loss via accretion occur on stellar remnants?
We know that normal stars can lose mass to a binary companion. But can this happen to neutron stars and white dwarfs? Let's say a stellar black hole is being orbited by a white dwarf or neutron star. ...
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What would happen if a neutron star merged with a white dwarf?
We've heard of neutron star mergers and white dwarf mergers. But what would result in a neutron star merging with a white dwarf? Would there be a similar super/kilonova, are there any examples of it, ...
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Can a star be massive enough to go 'supernova' yet not be massive enough to leave behind a neutron star? Or, perhaps vice versa?
From what I understand, stars that explode as a supernova at the end of their lives become either a black hole or a neutron star, and less massive stars that do not explode become white dwarves, but......
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The star that died and became the Crab Nebula and Crab Pulsar?
The supernova of this star was witnessed about 1 thousand years ago, and the star's remains are the Crab Nebula and Crab Pulsar. What is this no longer existent star called? How massive was this star? ...
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Stellar life cycle flow chart with mass conditions and time scales
I remember that in my nuclear astrophysics lecture a decade ago, our lecturer drew a large flow chart like diagram of stellar evolution in dependence of the mass of the star (in solar units) on the ...
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What about the magnetic field strength inside of an old accreting neutron star?
As the magnetic field strength outside an old accreting neutron star is thought to be small (about $10^8-10^{10}$ Gauss), what about it inside the star? Because of the superconductivity and ...
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What is the gravitational wave spectrum of an ellipsoid neutron star like?
If the star is ellipsoid instead a sphere, the wave should be rich of harmonics, not only (2*orbital frequency). Can these harmonics behave the same way, i.e. they appear/disappear together and drift (...
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How big would the supernova when a neutron star collides with another neutron star? [closed]
If two neutrons stars that are orbiting were to collide, how big would the supernova explosion be?
Would a new black hole or a new supernova remnant be formed?
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Question about redshift and effective gravity at the rotating neutron star surface
For a rapidly rotating neutron star, if consider the star as a sphere, redshift at the equator surface will be larger than at the pole. But if consider the star as an obsolate sphereiod (the ellipsoid ...
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1answer
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Do neutron stars have an ergosphere?
Ergospheres are a property of black holes, and do neutron stars have it? If yes, why seldom article mentions that; if no, why can't neutron stars have this ergosphere component?
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How could we search for old cold neutron stars?
This is the inverse of Will Gaia detect inactive neutron stars? (to which the answer was "probably not").
So if Gaia can't do it, what would it take? How could such a search work, and what ...
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Assuming proton decay is false, what's the ultimate fate of a neutron star or white dwarf?
A still unproven theory that protons can decay, and have a halflife of $10^{30}$ years or so, meaning eventually all matter will dissolve because their constituent protons and therefore neutrons will ...
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Is nuclear pasta or neutron star crust iron stable outside of neutron stars?
When neutron stars collide, they crash into and kill each other in a kilonova explosion, which blasts a lot of their material into space. A huge amount of neutronium, neutron star stuff, is suddenly ...
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Is there a Vela Nebula?
The Vela pulsar is a neutron star from a supernova that exploded 10,000 years ago. It spins 11 times a second. The Crab Nebula along with the central Crab Pulsar formed 1000 years ago. This pulsar ...
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How did Fermi manage to see neutron star merger?
When the GW170817 neutron stars merger was observed by LIGO/Virgo, the Fermi gamma-ray telescope observed the event 2s after the merge. How did it know where and when to look? It must take some time ...
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Why do objects appear blue while on a neutron star?
I was playing around in Space Engine recently, and I realized I hadn't yet landed on a neutron star. This seemed like a very sensible thing to do, so I did it and chose a (relatively) well-known one ...
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Can a pulsar also be a magnetar?
I know this is a simplistic question, but I cannot find a straight answer...
Also, is it possible most or all neutron stars are magnetars and/or pulsars? It's just hard to see all of their properties ...
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How likely are planets to form after neutron star collisions?
It is well known that planetary collisions can create moons orbiting the result of the merger if they happen in the correct way, and this is how the Earth's moon is believed to have been formed. See ...
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What methodology should be used to choose the correct model for origin of QPOs in X-ray astronomy?
In X-ray astronomy, quasi periodic oscillations (QPOs) are routinely shown by black hole and neutron star X-ray binary systems in their X-ray flux. Despite being strong and easily measurable signals, ...
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What would happen on earth if there was a surge in gravitational waves [duplicate]
There are claims that when massive objects merge some of their mass is converted to gravitational energy. Such as the following links:
https://astronomy.stackexchange.com/a/38727/2305
https://youtu.be/...
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Fraction of initial mass lost (radiated) by neutron star mergers compared to black hole mergers?
GW190521 black hole merger total mass calculation and missing mass, how does this happen? notes that there are about 9 solar masses missing from the final black hole.
GW170817 is the first observed ...
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If a pulsar's rotational and magnetic axes were aligned and both aimed at us, would we see a steady radio source?
In other words, a non-pulsing pulsar?
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Do the neutrons in neutron stars emit the radio waves?
Neutrons can, especially in extreme circumstances (and large concentrations) emit electromagnetic radiation. I specifically asked about this in Physics S.E. Has a free neutron ever been shown to ...
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How is angular momentum transferred between a neutron star and its accretion disk?
Accreting neutron stars can either gain or loose angular momentum via interaction with their accretion disks. This leads to either spin-up or spin-down. Which of the two is the case, depends on the ...
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If the sun is a second or third generation star, where is the neutron star? [duplicate]
It is widely believed that before the Sun was another star, more pristine in its composition (mostly Hydrogen and perhaps some Helium). And maybe before it was yet another. This blog explains this via ...
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Is there any synthetic spectrum software for neutron star?
Is there any software that can calculate the emergent spectrum of a neutron star photosphere, for Teff is about 1e7K, density is above 1e21-1e22 cm^-3 ? Output line wavelength is about 0-100A is ...