How does a super giant become a neutron star?

Answer 1

The story begins when 1) an aging star swells to a red giant, and 2) it explodes in a Type II, Type Ib, or Type Ic supernova, then 3) it leaves behind a cooling core that forms the ultradense neutron star.

A link is provided to the Wikipedia article on the neutron star.

The mass of a star which is 1.4 to just under 3 times the mass of the sun provides a scenario where that star has used up its hydrogen fuel and the core begins to change the overabundance of helium into carbon then eventually into silicone and so on until the transference no longer produces energy which happens when the core goes to iron. Then the two forces that are constantly in conflict in the nature of stars becomes out of balance. Gravity is the winner and the thermonuclear forces begin to shut down. This is not a gradual process at the end. This is the same process that occurs in the death of any star. However, a star this big suddenly the whole core collapses in an actual instant. The outer layers of the star are blown off in a cataclysmic explosion. The gravity crushes the atoms which compose the core that did not blow off in the instantaneous explosion of its outer layers. This crushing gravity is not enough to cause a "Black Hole," but it is enough to make the electrons in the shell of those atoms combine with the protons in the nucleus of those atoms turning them into neutrons. The entire star with a diameter of well over a million to 3million miles reduces down to the diameter about the size of a city, maybe twenty miles across. The surface has the smoothness of a cue ball. On an object the diameter of a city there is hardly a bump even a millimeter high. These things spin at fantastic rates in some cases thousands of times a minute. This causes an electromagnetic emission which is focused at the poles of this spin and is intense in its strength. These signals can often be detected many light years away. This material that composes the neutron star, the size of a teaspoon might weigh 5,000 tons. All this leads to one of the most bizarre objects in our Universe.

Answer 2

When a supergiant star runs out of fuel for nuclear fusion in its core, it no longer has the outward pressure to counteract the force of gravity. The core collapses rapidly, causing a supernova explosion. If the leftover core is between about 1.4 and 3 solar masses, it can become a neutron star due to the intense gravitational pressure converting protons and electrons into neutrons.

Answer 3

About the only things that could destroy a neutron star would be falling into a black hole, or colliding with another neutron star and collapsing into a black hole.

One other possibility would be colliding with a similar quantity of anti-matter; however, it is unlikely that such a quantity of ant-matter exists in our universe.

Answer 4

Put simply: When a star dies, gravity crushes it into an object a small fraction in size of what it was most of its life. The larger stars (much larger than our sun), when this happens, will blow its outer layers into space in what's known as a supernova explosion.

Answer 5

Two ways. The first is that the star exhausts its fuel and can't generate the radiation pressure to keep it from collapsing under its own gravity and the other is that a small but dense star sucks mass from a companion until it "ignites" an envelope of (relatively) easily-fused gases.

Answer 6

As the name suggests, neutron stars are actually composed of neutrons. When there is a sufficiently strong gravitational field, atoms (or superheated plasma consisting of fragments of atoms) collapse, and the electrons and the protons combine to form neutrons. Only neutrons are left.

Answer 7

In all bodies, gravitation must be balanced by some kind of outward pressure to prevent collapse. In most stars, the energy being liberated from nuclear fusion in the core is sufficient; every photon that is emitted will interact with countless atoms on its way to the surface, bumping each of those atoms outward in the process (yes this is a simplification but it's close enough).

When the fuel is expended, there is no more outflow of energy and the star begins to contract under its own gravity. In doing so, the temperature at the core increases, which may allow the fusion of heavier elements and the outflow of energy begins again, halting collapse.

Initially stars fuse hydrogen into helium, then in the second stage, helium into carbon and so on, but eventually the star will run out of material that can undergo fusion, and will continue collapsing until a new form of outward pressure is established.

The Pauli exclusion principle states that no two electrons can occupy the same quantum state at the same time. In lay terms, the electrons get squashed so close together that this creates an outward pressure (called "electron degeneracy pressure") which balances gravity and prevents further collapse. A star in this state is called a white dwarf, and will be the final stage of our Sun.

In bodies with masses greater than around 1.4 times that of the Sun, electron degeneracy pressure is insufficient to balance gravitation, and the collapsing star will simply continue beyond this until, similar to electron degeneracy, the neutrons become degenerate. A star in this state is called a neutron star.

The upper mass limit for a neutron star is somewhere around 3 times the mass of the Sun, at which point neutron degeneracy pressure is insufficient, and no known force can prevent the star from collapsing into a black hole.

Answer 8

a nebula is formed when the remains of a star are left over and a gravtiational force pulls together dust and gas to create the first stage of a star cylce which they begin as nebulae.

Answer 9

It means that the star converts to a supernova. In other words, there is a supernova explosion.

Answer 10

As the name suggests, a neutron star is composed almost entirely of neutrons.

See related link for a pictorial.