47 Tucanae in 60 Seconds

Narrator (April Hobart, CXC): Neutron stars are the ultra-dense cores that are often left behind after massive stars run out of fuel and collapse. In fact, these compact objects, which are less than 10 miles in diameter, contain the densest matter known in the Universe outside of a black hole. New results from Chandra and other X-ray telescopes are giving scientists information about important properties of neutron stars. By studying eight neutron stars, a group of researchers have come up with the one of the most reliable determinations yet of the relation between the radius of a neutron star and its mass. They looked at the neutron stars in double, or binary, systems where they are in orbit with stars like our Sun. One of these systems is known as X7 and is found in the globular cluster 47 Tucanae. Because the mass and radius of a neutron star is directly related to interactions between the particles in the interior of the star, the latest results give scientists new information about the inner workings of neutron stars.