Hey you might have heard about ‘Neutron Star’ from somewhere. It is basically a new phenomenon in
scientific world. If your heard the name for the first time, then you might be
wandering ‘What is Neutron Star?’ Today I’ll try to give a small overview on
it.
A neutron star is about 20 km in diameter and has the
mass of about 1.4 times that of our Sun with approximately radius of 12Km. This
means that a neutron star is so dense that on Earth, one teaspoonful would
weigh a billion tons! Because of its small size and high density, a neutron
star possesses a surface gravitational field about 2 x 1011 times that of
Earth. Neutron stars can also have magnetic fields a million times stronger
than the strongest magnetic fields produced on Earth.
Neutron stars are one of the possible ends for a star. They result from massive stars which have mass greater than 4 to 8 times that of our Sun. After these stars have completed losing their atomic energy, they go through a supernova blast. This explosion blows off the outer layers of a star into a beautiful supernova remnant. The central region of the star collapses under gravity. It breaks so much that protons and electrons merge to form neutrons. Hence it names “neutron star".
Neutron stars may appear in supernova remnants, as
isolated objects, or in binary systems. Four known neutron stars are thought to
have planets. When a neutron star is in a binary system, astronomers are able to
measure its mass. From a number of such binaries seen with radio or X-ray
telescopes, neutron star masses has been found to be about 1.4 times the mass
of the Sun. For binary systems containing an unknown object, this information
helps distinguish whether the object is a neutron star or a black hole, since
black holes are more massive than neutron stars.
The structure of neutron stars is based on existing
mathematical models, but it can also be deduced by studding neutron Star oscillations. On the basis
of supposed models; the surface of neutron stars is composed of atomic nuclei
which are further made up of iron. The atmosphere of neutron star controlled by
star’s magnetic field is several micrometers thick and it encounters solid crust.
The neutron star crust is consists of four crusts:
The neutron star crust is consists of four crusts:
·
Outer crust: it is about 0.3 to 0.5 km.
It consists of ions, electrons
·
Inner crust: 1-2km; composed of
electron, nuclei and neutrons
· Outer core: this core has approximately
distance of 9km and consists of neutron-proton Fermi liquid.
·
Inner core: the inner core is about
0-3km and has quark plasma
Some properties of Neutron
stars are given:
· Neutron star is much thick as a very small material of it has
a mass of 5.5×1012 kg
· Its Gravitational
Force is much higher approximately 2000km per seconds.
· Temperature inside the Neutron star is estimated to be 10^12
kelvin.
· At one million Kelvin; the light emitted by a Neutron Star is
in the form of X-rays.
·
It contains high pressure and increases from one crust to
another. From inner crust to the center; the pressure increases from 3×10^33 to
1.6×10^3.
Sources
This is a guest post by Puja Bhatia who
usually blogs at Docsity News. You can check her
personal blog too from Here. If like Puja you too want
to contribute to this blog by writing guest posts (courtesy is always
available here), then just feel free to Contact Me
right away.
About the Author
This is a guest post from Puja Bhatia. She contributes to Docsity news and other blogs too. She loves to write articles on various topics. She is one of the guest authors of our network.
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Hi Puja
ReplyDeleteIts so wonderful to see a blog on Astronomy. Reminds me of the days I spent giving lectures on stars to fellow amateurs.
It is a great pastime and I hope more people get interested reading your article.
I look forward to more articles from you on this subject.
Best wishes!
Wish to see supernova in my lifetime ! nice write up :-)
ReplyDelete