Strange Star
Recent theoretical research has found mechanisms by which quark stars with "strange quark nuggets" may decrease the objects' electric fields and densities from previous theoretical expectations, causing such stars to appear very much like—nearly indistinguishable from—neutron stars. However, the team of Prashanth Jaikumar, Sanjay Reddy and Andrew W. Steiner made some fundamental assumptions that led to uncertainties in their theory large enough that the case for it is not yet solid. More research, both observational and theoretical, remains to be done on strange stars in the future.
Other theoretical work contends that, "A sharp interface between quark matter and the vacuum would have very different properties from the surface of a neutron star"; and, addressing key parameters like surface tension and electrical forces that were neglected in the original study, the results show that as long as the surface tension is below a low critical value, the large strangelets are indeed unstable to fragmentation and strange stars naturally come with complex strangelet crusts, analogous to those of neutron stars.
Read more about this topic: Quark Star
Famous quotes containing the words strange star, strange and/or star:
“As for the nights I warn you the nights are dangerous
The wind changes at night and the dreams come
It is very cold
there are strange stars near Arcturus
Voices are crying an unknown name in the sky”
—Archibald MacLeish (18921982)
“We have found a strange footprint on the shores of the unknown. We have devised profound theories, one after another, to account for its origin. At last we have succeeded in reconstructing the creature that made the footprint. And lo! It is our own.”
—Arthur S. Eddington (18821944)
“Relying on any one disciplinary approachtime-out, negotiation, tough love, the star systemputs the parenting team at risk. Why? Because children adapt to any method very quickly; todays effective technique becomes tomorrows worn dance.”
—Ron Taffel (20th century)