MAKING OF A NEUTRON STAR

This is the ultimate fate of most stars between around 10 and 25 solar masses

1 MASSIVE STAR

For stars in this class, the final stages of main sequence evolution produce an iron-rich inner core.

2 CORE COLLAPSE

When all the nuclear fuel has been used up, the dense core collapses under its own gravity.

3 NEUTRON FORMATION

As gravity compresses the atoms in the core, electrons and protons are squashed together to form neutrons.

4 OUTER LAYER COLLAPSE

The star’s outer layers also start to collapse, falling into the core at a quarter of the speed of light.

5 SUPERNOVA EXPLOSION

The energy generated by the collapsing core blows off the outer layers in a spectacular supernova explosion.

6 NEUTRON STAR

All that remains is the incredibly dense core, composed almost entirely of neutrons.