A: The quick answer to your question is yes, they can gain matter. However, only a small fraction of neutron stars can gain mass — those in binary systems, where mass is transferred from the companion ...

Some neutron stars may contain a "special type of matter," according to a new NASA study. These observations from NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory indicate that the interiors of neutron stars might ...

Neutron stars are ultra-dense star remnants made up primarily of nucleons (i.e., protons and neutrons). Over the course of ...

Scientists could use the densest material in the known universe, located beneath the surface of neutron stars, to study the cosmos' most mysterious substance—dark matter. New research, published in ...

Quantum computing and neutron star physics are converging on the same hard problem: how to describe matter when gravity and ...

Astrophysicists have found evidence of a strange substance called quark matter at the heart of compact stars. Combining recent theoretical calculations with measurements of gravitational waves from ...

Dark matter is thought to outnumber the regular stuff by a ratio of five to one, yet it remains frustratingly elusive. But there might be ways to potentially spot it, if you know where to look, and ...

According to a new study by a team of theoretical physicists, high-energy X-ray emissions emanating from a group of neutron stars may be caused by axions, a hypothetical elementary particle that’s ...

Quark core: artist’s impression of the interior of a massive neutron star showing a quark-matter core in red. (Courtesy: Jyrki Hokkanen/CSC) It is very likely that ultra-dense deconfined quark matter ...

The neutron is a bit of a headache for physics. A neutron is an electrically neutral particle that helps glue protons together in the nucleus of atoms. Inside the atom, it is happily stable. But a ...

Computer generated image of a neutron star, including surrounding magnetic fields. Quiescent neutron stars are an ideal laboratory to search for a possible form of dark matter. Neutron stars are the ...

A research group has found strong evidence for the presence of exotic quark matter inside the cores of the largest neutron stars in existence. The conclusion was reached by combining recent results ...