neutron stars, new discoveries, outer space

New Model for Matter in Neutron Star Collisions

Neutron stars are the densest objects in our universe, except for black holes. As their name suggests, neutron stars are mainly made of neutrons. However, our knowledge about the matter produced during the collision of two neutron stars is still limited. Scientists from Goethe University Frankfurt and the Asia Pacific Center for Theoretical Physics in ...

Troy Oakes

A neutron star.

New Insights Into Neutron Star Matter

An international research team has for the first time combined data from heavy-ion experiments, gravitational-wave measurements, and other astronomical observations using advanced theoretical modeling to more precisely constrain the properties of nuclear matter as it can be found in the interior of neutron stars. The results were published in the journal Nature. Throughout the Universe, ...

Troy Oakes

This illustration shows the hot, dense, expanding cloud of debris stripped from two neutron stars just before they collided.

Did Rapid Spin Delay 2017 Collapse of Neutron Stars into Black Hole?

When two neutron stars spiral into one another and merge to form a black hole — an event recorded in 2017 by gravitational wave detectors and telescopes worldwide — does it immediately become a black hole? Or does it take a while to spin down before gravitationally collapsing past the event horizon into a black ...

Troy Oakes

Neutron star collapsing into a black hole.

New Gravitational-Wave Model Can Bring Neutron Stars Into Even Sharper Focus

Gravitational-wave researchers at the University of Birmingham have developed a new model that promises to yield fresh insights into the structure and composition of neutron stars. The model shows that vibrations, or oscillations, inside the stars can be directly measured from the gravitational-wave signal alone. This is because neutron stars will become deformed under the ...

Troy Oakes

Binary neutron star.

Spectacular New Pictures Showing a Dead Star Circled by Light

New images from ESO’s Very Large Telescope in Chile and other telescopes reveal a rich landscape of stars and glowing clouds of gas in one of our closest neighboring galaxies, the Small Magellanic Cloud, including a dead star circled by light. The pictures have allowed astronomers to identify an elusive dead star buried among filaments ...

Troy Oakes

Light from a neutron star.