Neutron Stars

A Neutron Star in Puppis A

X-ray image from ROSAT

Although often only a few kilmetres across, they are more massive than the Sun!

This makes them one of the densest kinds of object in the universe (only Black Holes are denser). A piece of neutron star the size of a house would weigh as much as the Moon.

It is impossible to make anything like the material that forms a neutron star on Earth, so if we want to understand what happens in such bizarre conditions, we have to look out into space.