neutron star
When Stars Consume Their Partners, We Could Detect a Blast of Neutrinos
You might be familiar with the bizarre ritual of the female praying mantis which, I’m told, bites off the head…
Astronomers are Hoping to Detect Gravitational Waves Coming from Supernova 1987A
A supernova explosion is a cataclysmic explosion that marks the violent end of a massive star’s life. During the event,…
If Neutron Stars Have Mountains, They Should Generate Gravitational Waves
Astronomers have discovered the gravitational waves released by colliding black holes, neutron stars, and even the background waves from merging…
Record-Breaking Magnetar was There in the Data All Along
The cosmic zoo has strange beasts that astronomers stumble across in the most fascinating ways. Not long ago a team…
The Heaviest Neutron Stars Could Have Strange Matter Cores
Physics gets weird at the extremes. Astrophysics usually deals with the extremely large - large energies, large gravities, and lots…
Neutron Star Behaves Like a Mini-quasar
There's a wobbly X-ray-bright binary object in our galaxy called Hercules X-1 that's blowing a mighty wind off to surrounding…
The Neutron Star That Thinks It’s a Black Hole
Black holes and neutron stars are among the odder denizens of the cosmic zoo. They're both dense collections of matter…
Astronomers Go Hunting for Mysterious Q-balls
Our universe may feature large, macroscopic clumps of dark matter, known as q-balls. These q-balls would be absolutely invisible, but…
Some Elements Arrived on Earth by Surfing Supernova Shock Waves
When stars die, they spread the elements they've created in their cores out to space. But, other objects and processes…
Magnetars are Extreme in Every Way, Even Their Volcanoes
In a recent study published in Nature Astronomy, an international team of researchers led by NASA and The George Washington…