AST201H1 Lecture 12: Mar10

• School: UTSG
• Department: Astronomy & Astrophysics
• Course: AST201H1
• Professor: Michael Reid

Document Summary

Neutron stars a neutron star is the ball of neutrons created by the collapse of the iron core in a massive star supernova. Further collapse from gravity is prevented in high mass stars due to neutron degeneracy pressure. Electrons disappear by combing with proton to form neutrons, releasing neutrinos in the process. A black hole if the remnant is above about 3 solar mass, nothing can stop it from collapsing entirely. A neutron star- if the remnant is about 1. 1 3 solar mass, its collapse will be halted by neutron degeneracy. Neutron stars have diameters of about 10 km but masses larger than the sun! (book says 10 km in radius?) (both are correct) In 1967, graduate student jocelyn bell burnell detected a strange signal using an early radio telescope. A strange repeating radio signal fro the cosmos. Bell burnell accidentally discovered neutron stars- specifically a class of them called pulsars!