Neutron stars

Key words
Size
accretion disc orbit
By comparing a neutron star with exoplanet pole
Manhattan Island on the same scale, gamma ray pulsar
the neutron star’s very small size can
be visualized. magnestar supernova
millisecond X-ray
neutron star
pulsar X-ray burster
neutron star

Manhattan Island Neutron star

●A neutron star is a small but extremely
dense object composed almost
entirely of neutrons.
● A neutron star may be only six miles
(10 km) in diameter but have
between 1.4 and three times
Miles the mass of the Sun.
● Neutron stars are thought to be the
0 6 12
collapsed remnants of massive stars
that have exploded in supernovas.

Mass Neutron star features

A neutron star is the result of the ● Neutron stars rotate very
collapse of a giant star many millions rapidly. The most rapid have
of times larger in size. As a result of
this compression, neutron stars are rotation periods of
very dense. hundredths of a second and
the slowest of 30 seconds.
● This rapid rotation is due
to the conservation of
angular momentum: the
slow rotation of the
original massive star
speeds up as the object
shrinks.
● Rotation periods very

A cubic centimeter of slowly become longer

matter from a neutron star over time: younger
would weigh about as
neutron stars rotate more
much as 3,500 fully-laden
Saturn V rockets on Earth. rapidly than older ones.

Pulsars
● Pulsars are neutron stars that emit a
stream of X-rays and gamma rays from
their poles. These are recorded as regular
pulses whenever an observer is in line of
Neutron star
types
● Magnestars are neutron stars with
magnetic fields that are at least 1,000
very high rotation rates (pulse periods of
times more intense than Earth’s.
less than 25 milliseconds).
Their magnetic fields become
● Millisecond pulsars are thought to form
weaker over time.
● X-ray bursters are neutron stars that
when material from a companion star falls
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sight of one of the poles.
● As with all neutron stars, a pulsar’s rate
of rotation slows as time passes. As its
rotation slows, the frequency of the pulses
is also reduced.
● However, millisecond pulsars are very old
pulsars (one billion years or more) with
onto a pulsar, causing it to spin more and
have accretion discs formed from
more rapidly.
material drawn from orbiting
● The first exoplanets to be discovered are
companion stars. Friction in the
in orbit around millisecond pulsars.
accretion disc results in the periodic
emission of powerful X-ray bursts.