THE first neutron star to be measured turns out to be bigger than
expected.
Using NASA’s Rossi X-ray Timing Explorer satellite, scientists in the US
looked at X-rays emitted by gas clumps falling onto a neutron star. They found
it has a radius of 18 kilometres.
Theories predicted that the star’s gravity should squeeze it to a smaller
radius. “If our work stands up, neutron stars are stiffer than we thought,”
reported Frederick Lamb of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign at
this week’s meeting of the American Physical Society in Columbus, Ohio.
