How Does a ‘Neutron Star’ Form and Why Is It So Dense?

A neutron star is like a super-compressed giant. When a big star runs out of fuel, it explodes in a supernova, and the core collapses into something incredibly tight, that’s a neutron star. It's so dense because all the matter gets squished together like a sponge being squeezed into a marble.

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  1. Imagine if a neutron star were like a giant marble, one teaspoon would weigh as much as 10 million tons on Earth!
  2. Neutron stars are so dense that they can be created when big stars explode in a supernova, squishing their cores into something tiny.
  3. If Earth were the size of a neutron star, it might fit inside a basketball, and you’d have to wear a helmet for the density!

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