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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Science
Hannah Devlin Science correspondent

‘Overweight’ neutron star defies a black hole theory, say astronomers

Neutron stars are small and dense, with a smooth crust that is 10bn times stronger than steel.
Neutron stars are small and dense, with a smooth crust that is 10bn times stronger than steel. Photograph: Sam Barnes/Alamy

An “overweight” neutron star has been observed by astronomers, who say the mysterious object confounds astronomical theories.

The hypermassive star was produced by the merger of two smaller neutron stars. Normally such collisions result in neutron stars so massive that they collapse into a black hole almost instantaneously under their own gravity. But the latest observations revealed the monster star hovering in view for more than a day before it faded out of sight.

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