3 ms·
This neutron star would probably collapse into a black hole, but its fast rotations prevents it from doing so. It's like the movie "Speed", just with higher sta
by Tepix 7y ago
This neutron star would probably collapse into a black hole, but its fast rotations prevents it from doing so. It's like the movie "Speed", just with higher stakes...
- QueensGambit 7y agoHow does this work? Is it the centrifugal force?
- johndunne 7y agoThe more correct term is angular momentum. There are 'mechanisms' that can slow the angular momentum. Angular momentum is conserved, and as the star collapses from the original total mass/radius to its new much lower radius, resulting in a high spin rate. At some point the angualar momentum (or centrifugal force) perhaps will fall to some critical value where the star collapse further. I think this would be a valuable event in terms of figuring out the equation of state and the related unanswered questios the PO mentioned? It's been years since I studied phyisics at uni.... astronomy was always me fav.
- ASalazarMX 7y agoIf neutron stars can spin that fast, it's good that they don't fling fragments of themselves. Although, if they did, those fragments would likely turn to dust outside the star's gravity.