TIL that most of the neutrons in neutron stars are created by electron capture. A proton absorbs an electron shell, transforms one of it's quarks, emits a neutrino, and becomes a neutron....
TIL that most of the neutrons in neutron stars are created by electron capture. A proton absorbs an electron shell, transforms one of it's quarks, emits a neutrino, and becomes a neutron.
Previously I had always heard it in a very glossed-over fashion eg "all the atoms get crushed together until the neutrons form a soup and resist further crushing". So the statement in the article about protons and electrons combining into neutrons caught me off guard.
No. They have a "theoretical limits of how massive and compact a single object can become without crushing itself down under the force of its own gravitational pull into a black hole", but have...
"Although scientists have studied neutron stars for decades, many of their mysteries remain unsolved. For example, do the incredible pressures found within neutron stars break neutrons down into soups of still tinier subatomic particles known as quarks? What is the tipping point when gravity wins out over matter and forms a black hole?"
No. They have a "theoretical limits of how massive and compact a single object can become without crushing itself down under the force of its own gravitational pull into a black hole", but have not observed it to be actually that.
TIL that most of the neutrons in neutron stars are created by electron capture. A proton absorbs an electron shell, transforms one of it's quarks, emits a neutrino, and becomes a neutron.
Previously I had always heard it in a very glossed-over fashion eg "all the atoms get crushed together until the neutrons form a soup and resist further crushing". So the statement in the article about protons and electrons combining into neutrons caught me off guard.
The opposite process can also happen, where a proton decays into an neutron, electron, and electron antineutrino! This is known as beta decay.
Isn't there a fine line between a massive neutron star and a blackhole?
No. They have a "theoretical limits of how massive and compact a single object can become without crushing itself down under the force of its own gravitational pull into a black hole", but have not observed it to be actually that.