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Glossary term: Estrela de nêutrons

Description: Uma estrela de nêutrons é um remanescente estelar muito denso e compacto que é deixado após o colapso do núcleo de uma estrela maciça. Estrelas com massas de cerca de oito massas solares ou mais terminam sua evolução estelar com o colapso de seus núcleos, desencadeando uma explosão de supernova. O núcleo colapsado tem uma densidade maior do que a da maioria dos núcleos atômicos e é composto principalmente de nêutrons. Esse último aspecto se deve aos prótons e elétrons se combinarem para formar nêutrons no núcleo colapsado, extremamente quente e denso, da estrela maciça. O limite inferior de massa de uma estrela de nêutrons é de 1,4 massa solar, e o limite superior é de cerca de 3 massas solares - acima disso, o objeto entraria em colapso e se tornaria um buraco negro. As estrelas de nêutrons altamente magnéticas são conhecidas como magnetares. A grande maioria das estrelas de nêutrons conhecidas é observada como pulsares de rádio.

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Term and definition status: The original definition of this term in English have been approved by a research astronomer and a teacher
The translation of this term and its definition is still awaiting approval

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A neutron star appears as a blue spot surrounded by shells of material which appear as red and green rings

Death of a massive star

Caption: A multi-wavelength image taken with telescopes on the Earth and in space of a neutron star within our neighbouring Small Magellanic Cloud galaxy. A neutron star (seen here as the blue spot surrounded by a red ring) is the final product of gravitational collapse, compression and explosion of a massive star, left embedded in its supernova remnant (in green).
Credit: ESO/NASA, ESA and the Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA)/F. Vogt et al. credit link

License: CC-BY-4.0 Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) icons


The pulsar appears as a bright spot in the center with a series of colored ripples moving away from it on two sides

The Crab Pulsar

Caption: At the heart of the Crab Nebula, situated approximately 6,500 light-years away in the constellation of Taurus, lies the Crab Nebula Pulsar. This is remnant of a massive star that exploded at the end of its life. This happened several thousand years ago but the light from this explosion only reached the Earth in the year 1054. This celestial event was viewed by people across the world with many different societies noting it in their records. The Crab Nebula Pulsar rotates about 30 times per second and emits light in many different wavelengths, including the visible spectrum. It is roughly one and a half times the mass of the sun but the force of the explosion that formed it crammed this mass into a tiny space, roughly ten kilometres in radius. This image is a composite of several observations conducted by the Gemini North observatory in Hawaii, USA. The pulsar can be seen at the center. The observations that this image was created from were taken over a period of five years. Data from 2009 is shown in blue and data from 2014 is shown in red. Over this time material has flowed away from the pulsar resulting in this colored ripple effect. Again the colors do not show real colors in the image, the ripples show the positions of the shockwaves as they moved away from the pulsar and hit into the surrounding gas.
Credit: International Gemini Observatory/NOIRLab/NSF/AUR, Jen Miller, Travis Rector, Mahdi Zamani & Davide de Martin credit link

License: CC-BY-4.0 Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) icons

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