Astrophysicists say that neutron stars are like “cosmic chocolates”.

A little astrophysicists who created interior models neutron stars it has been established that these compact bodies consist of various internal structures depending on their mass. That’s why they make sure these bodies are kind of “space chocolates”.

In a study published in Letters from an astrophysical journalthe team in charge explains that they have built millions of models of neutron stars to discern their inner workings, which are extremely difficult to study because their huge gravitational fields are capable of destroying bodies to the subatomic level.

Neutron stars and their resemblance to chocolates

The researchers mentioned that neutron stars lighter (weighing 1.7 times more than our Sun approximately) should have a soft mantle and a hard core. On the contrary, the heaviest ones are the opposite of what was explained earlier. Luciano Rezollathe astrophysicist at the Institute for Theoretical Physics who led the study compared the structure of stars to chocolates.

“Light stars look like pralines with a hazelnut center surrounded by soft chocolate, while heavy stars look more like pralines with a hard shell containing a soft filling.”he pointed out Rezolla In a statement sent to Goethe University from Frankfurt, Germany.

The authors of the study created models based on a million possible scenarios to capture the composition neutron stars based on its mass, pressure, volume, temperature, and astronomical observations of said objects. This method is critical to determining how these stars form, as few instruments are capable of simulating their intense physics.

Discoveries of neutron stars

For consistency analysis stars, the researchers modeled how the speed of sound would propagate through these bodies. Sound waves are also used to understand the internal structure of planets, as the lander did. in sight in Mars.

“What we have shown by building millions of equation-of-state models (from which the speed of sound can be calculated) is that the most massive neutron stars have a lower speed of sound in the core region than in its outer part. layers. This indicates some material changes in their cores, such as the transition from baryonic matter to quark matter.” said Christian Eckerastrophysicist Goethe Universitya contraption.

On top of that, the researchers also found that all neutron stars they are probably about 12 km in diameter, regardless of their mass. This measurement is less than half of what was discovered in 2020, according to which a typical neutron star had a diameter of about 22 km. Despite their size, the average mass of neutron stars is about half a million million. Land.

While these discoveries provide insight into the diversity neutron stars As far as their consistency, the researchers haven’t found the ingredients of the stars or how they interact with each other. Some suspect that neutron stars are neutrons to the core. Others believe that the centers of stars are factories of exotic particles that have not yet been identified.

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