Did you know...#4: A teaspoonful of neutron star weighs billions of tons

What's up Steemians, it's time for another useless and yet so interesting fact. Today we have something that is really mind-blowing, so stick with me to gain some more unusable knowledge.

Image credit: Wikimedia Commons

What the heck is a neutron star?

A neutron star is born when a large enough star comes to the end of it's lifespan. Basically what happens is that the star's core collapses under it's own mass, producing a very powerful "explosion" known as a supernova. After the supernova, the only thing left is the star's super dense core. This core is called a neutron star. However, if this "leftover" still has a mass greater than three times the mass of the sun, it will keep collapsing further and produce a black hole. But for now, let's just stick with neutron stars and leave black holes to an another post.

An interesting phenomenon with freshly formed neutron stars is that they spin really fast. Most of us have been in some kind of spinning gizmo and tried what happens when you tuck yourself in real tight while spinning. When you extend your arms and legs, you'll spin slowly but once you tuck tight, you'll start going really fast. This is what happens with neutron stars, but at a galactic scale. The angular momentum of the large star remains, but as the radius of the star decreases radically, it starts rotating really fast. So fast that the star can in fact rotate hundreds of times in just one second. That's a crazy rotational speed for anything, but even more for something that has the diameter of e.g. 10 kilometers or a bit over 6 miles.

A mountain on a spoon

So as we found out earlier, the birth mechanism of a neutron star explains it's exceptional density. But just how dense is the matter found in a neutron star? Well, imagine taking an average-sized mountain and squeezing it to fit on a teaspoon. Although the teaspoon wouldn't handle it that well, since there would be billions of tons of weight on it. For comparison, a Boeing 747 or "Jumbo Jet" weighs only 180 tons, so you'd have to squeeze quite a few of them on the spoon.

If you got interested, here are a few links to search for more information:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neutron_star
https://www.space.com/22180-neutron-stars.html

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That's it for today folks, hope this *"little"* fact got you thinking. Until next time. Peace. -R