AST 111 Lecture Notes - Lecture 13: Triple-Alpha Process, Observable Universe, White Dwarf

• School: Tunxis Community College
• Department: Astronomy
• Course: AST 111
• Professor: Reynolds

Document Summary

A ball of neutrons created by the collapse of the iron core in a massive star supernova. Made almost entirely of neutrons and held together by gravity, supported by neutron degeneracy pressure. Neutron stars can spin rapidly and emit beams of radiation along their magnetic poles. We detect this as pulses of radiation if the beams sweep by earth. Note: all pulsars are neutron stars, but not all neutron stars are pulsars. We know that pulsars must be neutron stars because no other massive object can spin so fast. A neutron star in a close binary system can burst back to life as gas overflowing from a companion star creates a hot, swirling accretion disk around it. However: the much stronger gravity of the neutron star makes its accretion disk much hotter and denser than an accretion disk around a white dwarf.