This Dead Star Is Only 15 mi Wide - But Heavier Than the Sun
A neutron star packs more mass than the Sun - about 1.4 solar masses for a typical one, about 2.1 for pulsar PSR J0740+6620 - into a ball NASA's NICER telescope measured at about 15.4 mi (24.8 km) across. That is wider than Manhattan is long (about 13.4 mi / 21.6 km) and more than twice as tall as a jet cruising at 35,000 ft (10.7 km); the Empire State Building is 1,250 ft (381 m) to its roof and was the world's tallest building from 1931 to 1970. A sugar-cube-sized piece of neutron star would weigh about 1 billion tons on Earth. Sources: NASA Scientific Visualization Studio / Goddard, 'NASA's NICER Probes the Squeezability of Neutron Stars' (April 2021); NASA Chandra X-ray Observatory, 'Science by the Numbers' (sugar cube = 1 billion tons); Empire State Building official facts (1,250 ft roof); Encyclopaedia Britannica, Manhattan (13.4 mi long). Models: 'Empire State Building' by NanoRay, 'boeing 747 with interior FREE' by zihanchi - Sketchfab, CC BY 4.0. Environment: Poly Haven, ambientCG (CC0). #Shorts #ScaleShock #howbig