Neutron stars: fast spinning spheres

Can you think of something that is perhaps the size of your city but weighs more than our sun, that's what you call a neutron star!

Neutron stars are the remains of the cores of dying stars. They are formed when a star which has the mass of 6 to 20 suns explodes into a supernova. They are small in size but extremely dense. About a tablespoon of material of neutron stars would weight about one billion ton, more than the Mount Everest. 

They are also the objects with the strongest known magnetic fields, billions of times that of the Earth's.

They spin, much like a lot of objects in the space. But their pace in very fast. These rapid spins, combined with the strong magnetic fields, causes these to emit light. These are called pulsars. The pulsar, PLS J 1748-2446A spins about 43000 times every single minute. 

And for a little bit of a fun fact the signals from the neutron stars first made the astronomers believe that they were messages from aliens .

Well, that is it for this post. See you next Sunday!!!