"Nuclear pulps" can be the most well known materials



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Spaghetti is fragile like hell and dry linguine can crack in a strong wind. But nuclear pulp is another matter (literally).

According to astrophysics, nuclear pulp exists in ultradense dead neutron stars – and may be the strongest material in the universe.

Neutron stars, the smallest and densest of the kind, are formed from the explosion of a supernova of a massive star; Gravitational collapse compresses the density of white dwarf stars from the central nucleus relative to the atomic nuclei.

At about a kilometer below the surface of the star, these nuclei tighten so tightly that they blend into the nuclear material – clusters that are thought to be a little like noodles.

Moving in the inner crust of neutron stars, you can find the phase of gnocchi (semi-spherical formations), the phase of spaghetti (long bars), the phase of lasagna (sheets of nuclear matter) and the bucatini phase ( cylindrical construction).

Additional compression is a surprise during the Swiss cheese manufacturing phase, when nuclear pasta holes become scattered spherical holes.

Eventually, the nuclei disappear and pass into the liquid core of the star.

Nuclear pulps are incredibly dense (about 100,000 billion times the mass of water), making them virtually impossible to break and also difficult to study in the laboratory.

Thus, researchers used computer simulations, playing with nuclear lasagna sheets to see how the material reacts to physical changes. It took "immense pressure" to contort the cosmic noodles; Science News reported that the physical strength needed to break pasta was greater than any other known material.

In fact, breaking the line requires 10 billion times the force needed to fly.

"It's a crazy number, but the material is also very dense, which helps to make it stronger," said Science News co-author and physicist Charles Horowitz, of the University of Chicago. Indiana, Bloomington.

These new results, planned for publication in the journal Letters of physical examination, could help physicists to discover concrete evidence of what is called nuclear pulps.

Neutron stars spin very fast, possibly emitting gravitational waves, perhaps detectable in installations such as the gravimetric laser interferometer (LIGO), according to the magazine.

The undulations of space occur if, and only if, a neutron star has mounds of dense matter. The larger the mountain, the stronger the gravitational waves.

The problem is that the intense gravity of neutron stars allows "mountains" of only a few centimeters. But the simulations suggest that this may be important enough for LIGO to detect the gravitational waves of neutron stars.

If this is the case, scientists could estimate the size of mountains and confirm that neutron stars have very strong materials in their crusts.

An ingenious YouTuber made a kitchen knife from pasta. Meanwhile, the mysteries of outer space abound. Read more heavenly news here.

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