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Lecture 32 – Stellar Remnants: Neutron Stars and Black Holes
Summary / Checklist of the Main Concepts to Understand and Remember
| Neutron Stars and Pulsars | ||
| • | What are neutron stars, and how do they form? | |
| • | What is the approximate range of masses for neutron stars? How large as they? (Why can't they be more massive, or less massive?) | |
| • | Why are neutron stars very difficult to see directly? | |
| • | What are pulsars? How are they detected, and how are they related to neutron stars? | |
| Black Holes | ||
| • | What is a black hole? What is the event horizon? How is it possible that black holes attract light, if photons of light have no mass? | |
| • | Which theory says that space and time can stretch and warp as the universe evolves? Why is light deflection evidence for it? | |
| • | How do we think most black holes form, and what are their masses? How large are these stellar black holes, typically? | |
| • | How do we normally detect a stellar black hole from Earth? Why are most of the known ones in binary systems? | |
| • | What happens to matter when it approaches the event horizon, and why do we call that an extreme case of tides (tidal forces)? | |
| • | What are supermassive black holes, and where do we find them? | |
Topics from the lecture page and textbook not listed above [or between square brackets]
were not covered in class;
Underlined words indicate that I will expect students to remember a number or a name related to that topic.
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