What are Different Types of Neutron Stars?
A neutron star is the gravitationally collapsed core of a massive star. When large stars use up all their nuclear fuel, they build up a core of iron as large as the planet Jupiter, containing about 1.44 solar masses of material. Because fusing iron nuclei requires putting in more energy than is produced, nuclear fusion no longer produces the core pressure necessary to prevent the star from collapsing in on itself. During the last moments of collapse, the giant star’s iron core phase changes into neutronium, a state of matter where all the electrons and protons in the iron atoms are fused together to produce nothing but neutrons. Because neutrons are neutral, they do not repel each other like the negatively-charged electron clouds in conventional matter do. Being pushed together by tremendous gravitational energy, the neutronium has similar density to an atomic nucleus, and in fact the entire core can be viewed as a large atomic nucleus. Its source of light and heat cut off, the outer l
