Black Holes, Neutron Stars, and White Dwarfs (Collab. w/ MinuteEarth)
Watch the MinuteEarth video here – I PROMISE it's really really really good: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pAI1N96t8Vk MinutePhysics & MinuteEarth are on Patreon: http://www.patreon.com/minute...
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There’s plenty of stuff in the universe that defies the human urge to categorize everything:I mean, is Pluto a planet?Is this a new species or subspecies?Man or woman?Green or blue or teal?However, sometimes nature gives us a helping hand and provides a hard, physical line distinguishingtwo things, like the line between white dwarf stars, neutron stars, and black holes.These are the different possible kinds of corpses of dead stars, and what distinguishesthem is how they hold themselves up against the inexorable attraction of gravity.Let’s begin, though, with what makes something a star in the first place: fusion of hydrogen.Below about 8% of the mass of the sun, a gas ball isn’t hot and high pressure enoughfor hydrogen to fuse and you get a failed star , e...
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There’s plenty of stuff in the universe that defies the human urge to categorize everything:I mean, is Pluto a planet?Is this a new species or subspecies?Man or woman?Green or blue or teal?However, sometimes nature gives us a helping hand and provides a hard, physical line distinguishingtwo things, like the line between white dwarf stars, neutron stars, and black holes.These are the different possible kinds of corpses of dead stars, and what distinguishesthem is how they hold themselves up against the inexorable attraction of gravity.Let’s begin, though, with what makes something a star in the first place: fusion of hydrogen.Below about 8% of the mass of the sun, a gas ball isn’t hot and high pressure enoughfor hydrogen to fuse and you get a failed star , e...
