Neutron Stars and Black Holes
Did you know that a neutron star which typically measures five to ten miles across would weigh about a billion tons per teaspoonful? Thats' because small, collapsing of dying starts usually end up as white dwarfs and fade away quietly, but larger stars often explode as supernovae and keep collapsing past the white dwarf stage. The gravity is so strong in this type of star that its material (in the form of neutrons) keeps getting pushed tighter together. Its size becomes smaller and its density keeps on growing until it becomes a neutron star.
You may have heard of pulsars, which are actually neutron stars which emit rapid streams of radio waves or pulses. They rotate very rapidly which causes the radiation to sweep across the Earth.
A black hole is not an easy thing to understand. Imagine a region in space so much mass and energy is concentrated that its gravitational pull prevents even light from escaping, making these areas black or invisible, Larger, more massive stars can collapse beyond the neutron star stage and form what scientists believe are black holes in space. Astronomers are able to locate these otherwise invisible black holes only if they have close companion stars whose gases are being pulled into their spiral or whirlpool like disk. Many galaxies seem to have massive black holes at their centers.
FastCounter by LinkExchange
