“We Can Measure Neutron Stars Now”- India
A neutron star is a type of remnant that can result from the gravitational collapse of a massive star during a Type II, Type Ib or Type Ic supernova event. Such stars are composed almost entirely of neutrons, which are subatomic particles without electrical charge and roughly the same mass as protons. Neutron stars are very hot and are supported against further collapse because of the Pauli exclusion principle. This principle states that no two neutrons (or any other fermionic particle) can occupy the same place and quantum state simultaneously.A typical neutron star has a mass between 1.35 and about 2.1 solar masses, with a corresponding radius of about 12 km if the Akmal-Pandharipande-Ravenhall (APR) Equation of state (EOS) is used- wikipedia
It may now be possible to measure the size of neutron stars now, as claimed by Sudip Bhattacharjee and his team from Mumbai’s Tata Institute of Fundamental Research. There are billions of neutron stars in the galaxy. Most of these have diameters of approx. 10 kms and are more than 10,000 light years away from Earth. The Earth’s dense atmosphere prevents the X-rays emitted by these stars from reaching us.This team of elite scientists claims that by observing the behavioral pattern of the X-rays by these dying stars collected by Nasa satellites(900 bursts from43 neutron stars), it may be possible to size them up!
Because the temperature of the bursts somehow varied with the radius of the stars.
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