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June 26 (UPI) – Scientists have developed new models to estimate the size of neutron stars.
The models, powered by gravitational wave data, have helped astrophysicists to establish new upper bounds that are more accurate than the estimates of neutron star size.
Neutron stars are among the densest objects in the universe, with a mass greater than that of our sun stuck in an area the size of a large city.
But are they more like the size of a sprawling Los Angeles, or more compact San Francisco? Until now, the precise dimensions of neutron stars have remained beyond the reach of scientists.
However, researchers have developed a new formula for estimating the size of neutron stars by analyzing the gravitational waves produced by the fusion of neutron stars.
At a certain point, neutron stars become so dense that they collapse and become black holes, but scientists have struggled to determine this threshold. To reduce the size limits of neutron stars, the researchers compared the predictions of two billion theoretical models of neutron stars.
Scientists constrained models with parameters observed in the gravitational waves generated by a neutron star fuse called GW170817.
"By exploring the results for all possible values of the parameters, we can effectively reduce our uncertainties," said Luciano Rezzolla, a researcher at the Institute of Theoretical Physics at Goethe University in Frankfurt, Germany, in a statement. Press release.
The results, detailed in the journal Physical Review Letters, suggest that neutron stars have a diameter of between 12 and 13.5 kilometers (7.4 and 8.4 miles).
"However, there is a twist to all this because neutron stars can have twin solutions," said Professor Goeth Juergen Schaffner-Bielich.
A phase transition at even higher densities could make ultra-dense neutron stars even smaller.
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