Starquake Reveals Hidden Structure of a Neutron Star

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Fig.1: The surface patterns for different torsional modes that may have been excited by the hyperflare. The colours and arrow lengths indicate the magnitude of the vibrations. Image: Max Planck Institute for Astrophysics.
Fig.1: The surface patterns for different torsional modes that may have been excited by the hyperflare. The colours and arrow lengths indicate the magnitude of the vibrations. Image: Max Planck Institute for Astrophysics.

A US-German team of scientists from the Max Planck Institute for Astrophysics and NASA have used NASA's Rossi X-ray Timing Explorer to estimate the depth of the crust on a neutron star, the densest object known in the universe. The crust, they say, is approximately 1.6 kilometres deep and so tightly packed that a teaspoon of this material would weigh about 10 million tonnes on Earth.


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