Title | WVU Astronomers Help Detect the Most Massive Neutron Star Ever Measured | |
Date | Monday September 16 2019, @09:31PM | |
Author | martyb | |
Topic | ||
from the How-much-is-that-in-kilograms-per-liter? dept. |
West Virginia University researchers have helped discover the most massive neutron star to date, a breakthrough uncovered through the Green Bank Telescope in Pocahontas County.
The neutron star, called J0740+6620, is a rapidly spinning pulsar that packs 2.17 times the mass of the sun (which is 333,000 times the mass of the Earth) into a sphere only 20-30 kilometers, or about 15 miles, across. This measurement approaches the limits of how massive and compact a single object can become without crushing itself down into a black hole.
The star was detected approximately 4,600 light-years from Earth. One light-year is about six trillion miles.
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