Betelgeuse

bla bla some intro to catch your interest

What are neutron stars?

Not only humans, animals and plants have a life cycle, so does stars. When a star reaches its final stage of their cycle it can go one out of two paths. Which path the star takes depends on different factors, one of them being size. When a star has a mass that is larger than 8M (solar masses), it is a massive star. These stars become either black holes or neutron stars at the end of their cycle, whereas a star with less than 8M becomes a white dwarf.

When the neutron star is formed it has a mass of about 1.4M (solar masses) but yet its small size it has a density of 10^17 kg/m^3 which is a density that is even greater than that of black holes!

How does neutron stars form?

When a star is at their end of their life cycle, it starts to run out of fuel to burn and when that it has completely run out, the core of the star collapses. What happens is that gravity causes the protons and electrons in the core of the star compresses into neutrons. What happens after the collapse of the star depends on the mass of the core inside of the star. If the mass is between 1 and 3M (solar masses), it will become a neutron star. If it has a mass that is higher than 3M, it will turn into a black hole instead. The core is left behind after the outer layers of the star has been blown away after the explosion. The explosion is very violent and is referred to as a supernova if the star itself is between 4 and 8M.The neutron star that is formed if the core that was left behind was, as previously mentioned, between 1 and 3M, spins extremely quickly because of the force of the supernova. The speed that the star spins is slowed down with time but can spin up to 43.000 times per minute!

The elements of a neutron star