What if a pulsar and a neutron star collide?
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Question by @SEDTROLLX — thank you!
A pulsar is a spinning neutron star, so this is a collision of two neutron stars. They don't bounce off each other. They smash together and merge, and the result often collapses into a black hole within a few thousandths of a second. In 2017, astronomers saw a merger like this in the galaxy NGC 4993, about 130 million light years away. It caused a kilonova explosion, and scientists estimate it made at least 10 Earths' worth of gold, though estimates vary a lot.
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Transcript
- Sef Sed Troll X asks: What happens if a pulsar and a neutron star collide?
- Sef Easy! They bounce off like rubber balls!
- Tiggy Nope. A pulsar is a spinning neutron star. They smash and merge.
- Tiggy Often into a black hole.
- Tiggy In 2017, one crash made at least 10 Earths of gold!
- Sef So my gold tag came from crashing stars? I'm a star dog!
Sources
- NASA Scientific Visualization Studio: Crash and Burst svs.gsfc.nasa.gov
- NASA Fermi: Neutron Star Merger and Kilonova fermi.gsfc.nasa.gov
- EarthSky: How the Universe Creates Gold earthsky.org
- Kasen et al., Nature 2017: Heavy Elements from Neutron Star Mergers ui.adsabs.harvard.edu
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