Re: Two neutron stars on a collision course?

On 7 m=E4rts, 02:54, Tim Little <t...@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote:
> On 2008-03-06, Crown-Horned Snorkack <chornedsnork...@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote:
>
> > Probably nickel.
>
> Oh, right.  Nickel-62 in particular.  For some reason I had thought
> that Iron-56 had lowest energy per nucleon, but it seems that's third.
>
> > But the conversion would be extremely slow. Nuclear fusion and
> > fission require high temperature and density for a prolonged time.
>
> High density?  Densities don't get much higher than that.
>
At densities which do not get much higher than that, what you have is
stable neutron matter. The reason it turns into something else is that
the densities have got lower.

> High temperatures?  Yes, absolutely.
>
But matter cools on expansion.

> Prolonged time?  Given the conditions of the expansion, certainly.
>