How big is a neutron star? These superdense compressed stars are quite small. Although they contain the mass of a normal star, their size is often compared to an average city.
For years, astronomers have given neutron stars 19 to 27 kilometers in diameter. This is actually pretty accurate given the distances and characteristics of neutron stars. But astronomers have worked to narrow this down to an even more accurate measurement.
An international team of researchers has now done just that. Using data from several different telescopes and observatories, employees of the Institute of Gravitational Physics. Max Planck and the Albert Einstein Institute (AEI) have narrowed their estimates of the size of neutron stars in half.
“We find that a typical neutron star, which is about 1.4 times heavier than our Sun, has a radius of about 11 kilometers,” said Badri Krishnan, who led the research team at AEI Hannover.
“Our results limit the radius to somewhere between 10.4 and 11.9 kilometers.”
The research object of this team is quite famous: the merger of the binary neutron star GW170817, which created gravitational waves discovered in 2017 by LIGO (Laser Interferometric Gravitational Wave Observatory) and the Virgo consortium.
“So, when we indicate the possible size of a neutron star with a mass of 1.4 Suns, we are actually limiting the possible physical laws that describe the subatomic world,” he said.
As the team describes in their paper, their findings could also be applied to study other astronomical objects such as pulsars, magnetars, and even how gravitational waves are emitted to gain detailed information about what creates these waves.
“These results are impressive not only because we were able to significantly improve measurements of the radii of neutron stars, but also because they give us an idea of the fate of neutron stars in merging binaries,” said Stephanie Brown, a co-author of the publication and a graduate student at AEI Hannover.
This article was published by Universe Today.
