Thursday, November 10, 2011

New Type of Neutron Star & Their Super-Nova Event Observed


First, I know it's a bit redundant but we really should cover what IS a neutron star. When a giant star ( at least eight solar masses) can no longer support its' massive atmosphere, (first by fusing all the hydrogen then on to the more massive elements,)explodes the upper layers of the photosphere and driving the core to collapse until electrons are driven into the core of star's remaining atoms making the core into ultra massive neutrons. So dense is this material that a teaspoon would mass thousands of tons. They are so massive and warp space around them in such an odd fashion that many believe that black holes are in fact some odd flavor of neutron stars.

Now astronomers have found that neutron stars come in two distinct types and possibly their associated super-nova as well. From the Daily Galaxy article:
  • In a paper which will be published this week in Nature, Professors Christian Knigge & Malcolm Coe from the University of Southampton worked with Philipp Podsiadlowski of Oxford University to reveal how they have discovered two distinct populations of neutron stars...


Really? I just got a handle on one flavor and they go and throw Rocky Road into the mx.... check out the article here on the Daily Galaxy blog



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