Pulsars and Pulsar Wind Nebulae
- Resource Type
- Authors
- D. Fidalgo
- Source
- Revealing the Most Energetic Light from Pulsars and Their Nebulae ISBN: 9783030241933
- Subject
- Physics
Solar mass
Astrophysics::High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena
Astrophysics::Cosmology and Extragalactic Astrophysics
Astrophysics
Star (graph theory)
Degenerate matter
Black hole
Stars
Neutron star
Supernova
Pulsar
Astrophysics::Solar and Stellar Astrophysics
Astrophysics::Earth and Planetary Astrophysics
Astrophysics::Galaxy Astrophysics
- Language
When heavy stars have burned all their nuclear fuel, neutron degeneracy pressure is the last force able to halt their collapse into a black hole. The sudden stop of the free-fall collapse leads to a rebound of the infalling matter triggering an outward shock that blows up the star envelope and powers a Type II supernova. If the mass of the progenitor star does not exceed \(\sim \)20 solar masses [1], the compact remnant core evolves into a neutron star. Otherwise the amount of matter falling back on to the core crosses the maximum neutron star mass and ultimately collapses to form a black hole.