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Welcome to the Astro Minute! I'm Lauren Smyth, and with the help of astronomer and teacher Kelli Smyth, I'll be your tour guide as we explore the secrets of the night sky sixty seconds at a time.
Welcome to the Astro Minute, where we’re exploring the universe sixty seconds at a time. I’m Lauren Smyth, and today we’re looking at supernova remnants and neutron stars.
When a star eight to twenty-five solar masses goes supernova, it ejects its outer layers, called the supernova remnant, at millions of miles per hour. The remaining collapsed core, crushed into a sea of neutrons in a sphere only a few miles across, is so dense that a teaspoonful would weigh ten million tons on earth. Its extreme gravity bends light and dilates time, only outdone by black holes. This is a neutron star. Some neutron stars called pulsars have powerful magnetic fields, spin several times per second, and spew jets of radiation which flash across earth like lighthouses.
The Crab Nebula, visible with binoculars and telescopes, is the remnant of a supernova seen in ten-fifty-four AD. In its midst is the Crab Pulsar.
I’m Lauren Smyth, and that’s your AstroMinute.