the last sighs of the stars

#sighs #stars

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Being born from a death is something that can be negative when you first hear it. However, for the neutron stars, great giants that arise from the explosive death of massive stars, is a fact. These stellar relics, with densities astonishingly large and magnetic fields enormous, they represent a phase in the life of stars that attracts the most attention due to its great attractiveness.

In this way, neutron stars appear as the last gasps of massive stars, which collapse under their own weight after a burst of a supernova. In this violent process, stellar matter is compressed into an incredibly dense sphere, in which electrons and protons fuse to form neutrons. This is a collapse so extreme that it gives rise to an object of cosmic proportions, but that has the typical diameter of a city.

Video: Spectacular photographs of space

HOW ARE THEY FORMED?

Are you familiar with the supernova, that great explosion that ends the life of a star? Well, that is exactly where the neutron star is formed. In that violent event, the star exhausted of nuclear fuel, collapse under its own gravity in a matter of seconds, compressing matter to extreme densities. During this process, electrons and protons merge, giving rise to neutron stars, an extremely dense stellar object with a mass several times greater than that of the Sunbut with a diameter of just a few kilometers.

In addition to being a great cosmic spectacle, the formation of these objects plays a very important role in the evolution and enrichment of the universe. The energy released during the collapse and during the explosion of the supernova is essential for the dispersion of heavy elements throughout the Cosmos, which are expelled and are necessary for the formation of planets, planetary systems, asteroids or satellites.

A computer simulation depicting a neutron star with an accretion disk emitting X-rays through the magnetic axis.

THE LAST BREATH OF THE STARS

But, in addition to attracting attention for their formation, neutron stars are also extremely curious for their internal structure. Its nucleus, composed mainly of neutrons, is surrounded by a solid crust of materia nuclear highly dense. It is precisely this high density that causes a very high surface gravity, which distorts space-time significantly, in accordance with the Theory of Gravity. And, speaking in numbers, neutron stars have a mass several times that of the Sun compressed into the size of a city.

Furthermore, its magnetic fields are billions of times more intense than those of the Sun, which influences the way they interact or attract the elements of their environment. For example, it is very easy for this to generate the appearance of pulsarsthat is, neutron stars that emit periodic beams of radiation as they rotate rapidly, as if they were continuous shots and in all directions of radiation.

ESSENTIAL AND ATTRACTIVE

These unique characteristics and properties mean that the study of neutron stars not only allows us to explore the limits of physics, but also has important implications in the future. understanding of the Universe in its entirety. These objects can act as “natural laboratories”, in which it is possible to study phenomena such as General Relativity, nuclear matter or particle physics in extreme environments and conditions that cannot be replicated in terrestrial laboratories.

Now, naturally, its role in the formation and evolution of stellar and galactic systems is also essential to understand the stellar life phases and the normal behavior of each of these, being a key element in the understanding the future of the Sun itself and the Solar System in general. In fact, neutron stars provide very important clues about the dynamics and structure of the Cosmos on cosmic scales that are beyond human understanding.