Astronomers are on the hunt for the remnants of the neutron-star collision that gave Earth its precious metals. When neutron stars merge, they spew a wealth of short-lived elements into their ...

A surprisingly bright cosmic blast might have marked the birth of a magnetar. If so, it would be the first time that astronomers have witnessed the formation of this kind of rapidly spinning, ...

It isn’t a secret that humanity and everything around us is made of star stuff. But not all stars create elements equally. Sure, regular stars can create the basic elements: helium, carbon, neon, ...

Across the cosmos, many stars can be found in pairs, gracefully circling one another. Yet one of the most dramatic pairings occurs between two orbiting black holes, formed after their massive ...

A new study showing how the explosion of a stripped massive star in a supernova can lead to the formation of a heavy neutron star or a light black hole resolves one of the most challenging puzzles to ...

Neutron stars are the classic example of a synthesis between quantum mechanics and gravity. Formed after the collapse of the remnants of a supernova, a neutron star is generally smaller than the earth ...

Neutron stars are the unimaginably dense remnants of collapsed giant stars. They get their name because the conditions inside are so fierce that atoms are smashed apart into a soup of protons, ...

A mystery lurks inside the corpses of dead stars. Neutron stars, formed when certain types of stars die in supernova explosions, are the densest form of matter in the universe; black holes are the ...

Neutron stars are some of the densest objects in existence, only beaten out by black holes. Neutron stars are something of a paradox. They are inherently simple, their formation being governed by a ...

A magnetar is a special kind of neutron star. Neutron stars form when a star collapses under its own weight. Gravity squeezes the star to the point that only the pressure of neutrons and quarks can ...

Binary star systems are not rare. Neither are systems where one star is a remnant like a white dwarf or neutron star, and its companion is on the main sequence. In those systems, the dense remnant can ...