What is a neutron star?
Q: What is a neutron star?
A: A neutron star is a very small and dense star made almost completely of neutrons. It has a radius of about 11-11.5 kilometres and a mass of about twice that of the Sun.
Q: How dense is a neutron star?
A: The density of the star is like that of the nucleus of an atom, with its gravitational field at the surface being 2x1011 times stronger than on Earth. To put it into perspective, all the mass from our sun could be pushed down into a ball with 19 kilometres diameter. One teaspoon of matter from the neutron star would weigh 6 billion tons.
Q: How fast do neutron stars spin?
A: Neutron stars spin very fast, from 0.001 second up to 30 seconds to turn.
Q: What types are there?
A: There are different types such as pulsars, magnetars and binary pulsars which emit beams of electromagnetic radiation or have strong magnetic fields between 108 and 1015 times as strong as that on Earth respectively.
Q: What temperature do they typically have?
A: Neutron stars that can be observed are very hot and typically have a surface temperature of around 600000 K (600000 degrees Kelvin).
