| Examples of "nuclear pasta," the material deep within neutron stars that was calculated to be the toughest material in the universe. | Speaking of Science readers will recall that in October, astrophysicists and astronomers reported the observation of a kilonova — the catastrophic merger of two neutron stars into one object. (This object might be a black hole, but there is no consensus.) A neutron star is born when a mid-sized star (about four to eight times bigger than the sun) goes supernova. Its pieces collapse inward. Its core is so dense and compact that a billion tons of neutron star fits in a teaspoon. | | Researchers at Canada's McGill University, as well as the California Institute of Technology and Indiana University, crunched the numbers on neutron star material. It turns out that a dense soup of neutron clusters in the stars' crust may be the toughest stuff in the universe, the scientists calculate in a new study. | | Those clusters are what astrophysicists call "nuclear pasta," structures made of subatomic particles that could only exist at densities found in the crust of a neutron star. Those densities force the protons and neutrons into flat sheets, clumps and other shapes that resemble, if you squint, pasta. To smash this pasta takes a force, Livescience reported, 10 billion times greater than what can shatter steel. | | | There's still a lot these researchers don't know about nuclear pasta. "How large a mountain can you build on a neutron star before the crust breaks and it collapses? What will it look like?" McGill University postdoctoral researcher and study author Matt Caplan asked in a statement. "And, most importantly, how can astronomers observe it?" | | | | | |
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