2 ms·

How do you get any elements out of a neutron star ?

• AtlasBarfed 6y ago
  The collisions have so much energy that matter (neutronium) is ejected. I believe it might happen in neutron star - black hole mergers too due to the crazy gravitational energy involved. Anyway, you eject clumps of "pure neutronium" then they will undergo rapid evolution to elements as neutrons decay to protons in order as they try to become stable elements. I'm not a nuclear physicist... I'm not a physicist.... Personally, if neutron star mergers are responsible for most heavy elements, then the "island of stability" above the current transuranics probably doesn't exist, because neutronium would almost certainly traverse those islands as it followed all the different decay chains.
  • jacquesm 6y ago
    That stability is the physics interpretation of the word stability, where stability could be measured in hours, minutes or even seconds rather than on a timescale where those elements would be present in measurable quantities billions of years later.
  • BlueTemplar 6y ago
    Huh, I missed that development ! Yeah, I guess that there's some (literally !) "golden middle", where the energies involved are high enough to eject some large fraction of the neutronium, while the masses involved aren't high enough to immediately result in a black hole ?