5 ms·
I think a neutron star is fully degenerate; effectively it's all core. It's not made of atoms; it's more like a huge atomic nucleus. It's much more dense than t
by denton-scratch 5y ago
I think a neutron star is fully degenerate; effectively it's all core. It's not made of atoms; it's more like a huge atomic nucleus. It's much more dense than the "super-dense" gas these researchers are playing with.
A newly-formed neutron star should contain about as much heat as the stellar core that collapsed to form it, but in a much smaller space; so I'd expect it to be super-hot. WP says it's temperature is around 600,000K.
So rather than becoming transparent, I'd guess that a neutron star would be super-reflective. It's surface is ultra-smooth, and I can't see a photon getting far into a neutron star without encountering a neutron. Newly-formed neutron stars lose heat very quickly, but they do that by emitting huge numbers of neutrinos, not photons.
- ninjanomnom 5y agoNeutron stars have an atmosphere and layers like any other [1] . Very strange and theoretical ones to be sure, but one of the more entertaining. 1: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuclear_pasta https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuclear_pasta
- denton-scratch 5y agoHmm. A farfale phase? (butterflies) Perhaps a chonchiglie phase? Made of the hardest substance in the universe? Mmm - tasty. Thanks - I knew neutron stars had some kind of "atmosphere", but I didn't realise they had layers and interlayers. [Edit] I didn't even realise that NSs had protons in them. I thought protons all degenerated into electrons and neutrons. I have new stuff to learn about - I knew NSs were about the weirdest places anywhere, but they're weirder than I thought.
- deleted 5y ago[deleted]