What is a neutron star?
A neutron star is the compact collapsed core of a massive star that exploded as a supernova at the end of its life cycle, in this particular case, the one described by the researchers is a highly magnetized type of neutron star called a pulsar that unleashes beams of electromagnetic radiation from its poles. As it spins, these beams appear from the perspective of an observer on Earth to pulse - akin to a lighthouse's rotating light, the Reuters report said. Notably, there is only one other neutron star is known to spin more quickly than this one.
Roger Romani, director of Stanford University's Center for Space Science and Astrophysics and a co-author of the research published this week in the Astrophysical Journal Letters informed, "the heavier the neutron star, the denser the material in its core. So as the heaviest neutron star known, this object presents the densest material in the observable universe. If it was any heavier it should collapse to a black hole, and then the stuff inside would be behind the event horizon, forever sealed off from any observation."
It is important to note that a black hole's event horizon is the point of no return beyond which anything including light gets sucked in irretrievably. "Since we don't yet know how matter works at these densities, the existence of this neutron star is an important probe of these physical extremes," Romani said.
The report further highlighted that stars that are about eight or more times the sun's mass transform hydrogen into heavier elements through thermonuclear fusion in their cores. When they build up about 1.4 times the mass of our sun in iron, that core collapses into a neutron star having a diameter only about the size of a city, with the rest blown off in the supernova explosion. Its matter is so compact that an amount about the size of a sugar cube would outweigh Mount Everest, the Reuters reported.
(With inputs from Reuters)
