COULD the universe be filled with strange stars the size of footballs? Perhaps, if the big bang fireball churned out superdense stars just a few tens of centimetres wide. And contrary to conventional theory, such stars might even form today when ordinary stars explode.
When a massive star runs out of fuel at the end of its life, it collapses and explodes. If a core about 2 or 3 times as massive as the sun remains, it forms a neutron star, a superdense ball of nuclear matter typically 10 kilometres wide. And if the core is heavier, it should collapse…
