The Spiders That Turn Stars into Planets

TL;DR

Neutron stars known as black widow pulsars, which steal gas from their companion stars, challenge our understanding of physics.

Transcript

This SciShow video is supported by Ground News, a website and app that lets you compare how major events are being covered. You can go to ground.news/scishow or click the link in the description to get 30% off the Vantage level subscription. They may be star corpses, but neutron stars are still intense. Most are more massive than the Sun, but small... Read More

Key Insights

• 🤩 Neutron stars are incredibly dense and spin much faster than conventional stars due to their collapsing process.
• 😁 The beams of radio waves emitted by neutron stars, called pulsars, are still not completely understood and are thought to be related to their magnetic fields.
• ✴️ Black widow pulsars steal gas from companion stars and can spin faster as a result, challenging our understanding of the maximum mass a neutron star can have.

Questions & Answers

Q: How do neutron stars form?

Neutron stars form when a massive star runs out of fuel and collapses under its own gravity. The core collapses, turning particles into neutrons, and the rest of the gas is released in a supernova explosion.

Q: How do neutron stars spin so fast?

Neutron stars spin faster as they collapse, conserving angular momentum. Their twisted magnetic fields interact with nearby particles, causing them to emit pulses of radio waves that can be detected on Earth.

Q: What are black widow pulsars?

Black widow pulsars are neutron stars that have siphoned off so much gas from their companion stars that the companions themselves shut off and turn into gas giant planets.

Q: How do black widow pulsars spin so fast without a companion star?

Some black widow pulsars are loners and spin hundreds of times a second. It is believed that they were once in a binary system and stole enough gas from their companion star to increase their mass and spin.

Summary & Key Takeaways

• Neutron stars, more massive than the Sun but smaller than New York City, can have surfaces as hot as a million degrees Celsius and spin nearly a thousand times a second.

• Black widow pulsars are neutron stars that steal gas from their companion stars, causing the companion star to shut off and become a gas giant planet.

• Some black widow pulsars spin so fast that they break the laws of physics, leading scientists to search for explanations as to how they are able to achieve such speeds.