Neutron Stars: The Collapse Of Stars

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Thesis Statement: During their existence, stars form when the density of interstellar gas and dust, which form molecular clouds, reaches a certain point, and die by collapsing and turning into a white dwarf or a neutron star. Stars can fail and become a brown dwarf.

Stars form when the density of the concentration of molecular clouds collapses and reaches a certain point. These regions are usually extremely cold and contain carbon and hydrogen. However, not all materials from the clouds form stars. Some of the material can form planets, asteroids, comets, or remain as dust. There are different kinds of stars in space, including neutron stars, white dwarfs, and brown dwarfs. Neutron stars come from collapsed cores of stars. White dwarfs are stellar remnants that is mostly made up
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The core collapses first since it is denser than the outer parts of the cloud. When the core collapses, it heats up which forms clumps that forms protostars. This process takes about 10 million years and will create a star one day. When a star is near the end of it’s life, it can undergo gravitational collapse where protons and electrons are scrunched together. This is what is known as a neutron star. The materials in a neutron star are packed in very tightly. One cubed sized amount of this material can weigh as much as Mount Everest! There have been theories about the existence of neutron stars since the 1930’s. Neutron stars belong to a subclass known as pulsars. Pulsars are very young objects that rotate extremely rapidly. Some of these objects can spin faster than a kitchen blender! Most neutron stars are billions of years old. Without much internal energy available, neutron stars can be seen as faded to near invisibility. Astronomers have found less than 2,000 pulsars when there should be about a billion neutron stars in the Milky Way Galaxy. Stars when near the end of their lives may end their lives as black

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