Gravity defied from potato asteroids to magnetised neutron stars

Abstract

A star burns its nuclear fuel and balances gravitation by the pressure of the heated gas, during its active lifetime. After the exhaustion of the nuclear fuel, a low mass starfinds peace as a ‘white dwarf’, where the pressure support against gravitation is provided by Fermi-degenerate electrons. However, for massive stars, the gravitational squeeze becomes so severe that in the final phase of evolution, the average density approximately equals the nuclear density. At such densities, most of the protons combine with electrons to convert themselves into neutrons. A ‘neutron star’, composed of such neutron-rich material, is host to some fascinating physics arising out of its amazingly compact state of matter (where a solar mass is packed inside a sphere of radius ~ 10Km).