Neutron star

:This article is about the celestial body. "Neutron Star" was a 1966 Hugo award winning short story by Larry Niven

History of discoveries

In 1932 Sir James Chadwick discovered (Nature Vol 129, p. 312 "on the possible existence of a neutron") the neutron as an elementary particle, good for a Nobel Prize in Physics in 1935.

Related Topics:
Sir James Chadwick - Nobel Prize in Physics

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In 1933 Walter Baade and Fritz Zwicky (Phys. Rev. 45 "Supernovae and Cosmic rays") proposed the existence of the neutron star, only a year after Chadwick's discovery of the neutron. In seeking an explanation for the origin of a supernova, they proposed that the neutron star is formed in a supernova. Supernovae are suddenly appearing new stars in the sky, whose luminosity in the optical might outshine an entire galaxy for days to weeks. Baade and Zwicky correctly proposed at that time that the release of the gravitational binding energy of the neutron stars powers the supernova: "In the supernova process mass in bulk is annihilated". If the central part of a massive star before its collapse contains (for example) 3 solar masses, then a neutron star of 2 solar masses can be formed. The binding energy E of such a neutron star, when expressed in mass units via E=mc², is the equivalence of 1 solar mass. It is ultimately this energy that powers the supernova.

Related Topics:
Walter Baade - Fritz Zwicky - Supernova - E=mc²

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In 1967 Jocelyn Bell and Anthony Hewish discover radio pulses from a pulsar, later interpreted as originating from an isolated, rotating neutron star. The energy source is rotational energy of the neutron star. The largest number of known neutron stars are of this type.

Related Topics:
Jocelyn Bell - Anthony Hewish - Pulsar

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In 1971 Riccardo Giacconi, Herbert Gursky, Ed Kellogg, R. Levinson, E. Schreier, and H. Tananbaum discover 4.8 second pulsations in an X-ray source in the constellation Centaurus, Cen X-3. They interpret this as resulting from

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a rotating hot neutron star in orbit around another star. The energy source is gravitational and results from a rain of gas falling onto the surface of

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the neutron star.

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