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Stars

Neutron Stars and Pulsars

How dense is a neutron star?

A neutron star is about as dense as a neutron itself. To put it in a different way, it has the density of an object more massive than the Sun, yet it is only about ten miles across. That means that a neutron star is ten trillion times denser than water. A single teaspoon of neutron star material would weigh about five billion tons! A dimesized sliver of neutron star material contains more mass than every man, woman, and child on Earth put together. If you dropped a chunk of neutron star material toward the ground, it would cut through our planet like it was not there; it would fall through the center of our planet, emerge out the other side, and keep traveling back and forth through the middle of Earth for billions of years, turning our planet into something like a big ball of Swiss cheese.



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