By Sunay Udaipurwala
We live in a weird and wonderful world and the way we study, explore and understand this world is called SCIENCE. As we take a step outside of this world and into space, we realize that space is far vast than we can comprehend and is filled with the greatest of unknowns. One of these unexplored mysteries is the Neutron Star.
When a huge star runs out of fuel, and it no longer burns on hydrogen, helium or any other element, it explodes and forms neutron stars. Even though there have been only a few thousand stars that have exploded in this way, there are hundreds of millions of neutron stars. Neutron stars and their density are usually measured in solar masses. Some even have a mass of about twice that of the Sun.
Despite their unusually great mass, they are considered to be one of the smallest types of stars in the universe, with a width ranging from 15 to 30 kilometers. Some neutron stars have a strong field of gravity, and have planets revolving around them. These stars are very dense, and this density gives rise to a very great mass, much greater than the Sun.
To put it in perspective, a tablespoon of the Sun, depending on where you scoop, would weigh about 5 pounds (2 kilograms) which is the weight of an old laptop, whereas, a tablespoon of neutron star weighs more than 1 billion tons (900 billion kg) which is the weight of Mount Everest. So, while you could lift a spoonful of Sun, you can’t lift a spoonful of a neutron star. This means that a fistful of neutron stardust is heavier than the whole Earth! If this was to be brought to the Earth, due to the sheer mass, the Earth would be thrown off its orbit, and the impact caused due the mass landing on Earth would cause an explosion powerful enough to turn our planet into dust!
Comments