The inside of the neutron stars It has been a mystery since its discovery. They are known to be the remnant of the collapse of a massive supergiant star that has run out of fuel in its core to sustain itself. turned on. It is also described that they are the denser objects that are known in the Universe. In fact, although they may have several times the mass of the Sun, its size can be approximately that of a not too large city. We can therefore visualize them as a ball of great density, but what is inside that ball? That is the question that a team of scientists from the goethe university (Frankfurt), whose results point to something as sweet as chocolates.
Well, it’s actually a metaphor, but it helps to understand it. And it is that they have seen that there is two types of neutron stars. Some have a rigid core and a soft mantle, while others have the opposite: a soft core and a rigid mantle. Therefore, the former are like the praline chocolateswith a dry fruit inside, surrounded by much softer chocolate, and the latter tend a creamy center, surrounded by more compact chocolate.
This is not to say that they already know everything about the interior of neutron stars. However, they have more information than other scientists had before the publication of your studyin The Astrophysical Journal Letters.
Two types of neutron stars
Prior to carrying out their study, these scientists knew that there are two types of neutron stars. Nail heavywith a mass greater than 1.7 times that of our Sun, and other lightwith a mass less than that.
They might have expected their interior to be different, but they weren’t sure. Therefore, they proceeded to model state equations of the two types of neutron stars. The equations of state are those that describe the state of aggregation of matter through data pertaining to parameters such as temperature, pressure, volume, internal energy and density. In addition, in this case they added the analysis of the Speed of sound.
It is known that the sound waves they travel more or less fast depending on the rigidity of the material through which they move. In fact, on Earth this parameter is used to find underground oil pockets. For this reason, a graduate student at Goethe University, Sinan Altiparmakhe thought it might be useful for analyzing neutron stars as well.
And it was. Thanks to that, she already modeling of more than a million equations of state, were able to describe those chocolate-like centers. Those with praline, with the dried fruit in the middle, would be the light ones, and those with a creamy center would be the heavy ones. But that was not all.
Relevant data beyond the chocolates
Scientists now have a rough idea about the interior of neutron stars. But they also know other facts. For example, they have found that, regardless of their mass, it is very likely that all neutron stars have more or less the same radius, about 12 kilometers. That is, there will be some especially dense ones.
Secondly, as explained in a statement The study’s lead author, Dr. Christian Eckerhis extensive numerical study “not only makes it possible to make predictions for the radii and maximum masses of neutron stars, but also to establish new limits to its deformability in binary systems. That is, it helps to establish “how strongly they distort each other through their gravitational fields”. Furthermore, he adds that “these insights will be particularly important for identifying the unknown equation of state with future astronomical observations and gravitational wave detections of merging stars.”
In short, what they have discovered is much more than a metaphor about types of chocolates. Although you must recognize that now you may feel like eating one.