neutron stars are extremely dense stars – perhaps the densest stars in the known universe! – so dense in fact, that a marble-sized serving of neutron star would weigh about the same as 5 trillion tons of earth rock! they can form as a result of the collapse of a giant star in a supernova event. because they are so compact, thanks to the conservation of angular momentum, they spin really quickly – more than 700 revolutions a second! – which we can detect from earth. based on our estimate of how many supernovae events there have been in the universe, we estimate that there are as many as 100 million neutron stars out there. that’s a lot! as one of my favorite bands muse sing, love is forever, and hearts will combine like a neutron star collision!
