AST 2002 Lecture Notes - Lecture 14: Event Horizon, Gravitational Redshift, Escape Velocity
Document Summary
White dwarfs are the remaining cores of dead stars. White dwarfs with the same mass as the sun are about the same size as earth. Quantum mechanics says that electrons must move faster as they are squeezed into a very small space. As a white dwarf"s mass approaches 1. 4msun" its electrons must move at nearly the speed of light. Because nothing can move faster than light a white. A neutron star is the ball of neutrons left behind by a massive star supernova. The degeneracy pressure of neutrons supports of a neutron star against gravity. Electron degeneracy pressure goes away because electrons combine with protons, making neutrons and neutrinos. Neutrons collapse to the center, forming a neutron star. A neutron star is about the same size as a small city. A pulsar is a neutron star that beams radiation along a magnetic axis that is not aligned with rotation axis.
