Re: Two neutron stars on a collision course?

On Mar 3, 9:17 am, Erik Max Francis <m...@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote:
> Matt Browne SFW wrote:
> > What exactly will happen when two neutron stars are on a collision
> > course?
>
> It depends on the sizes of the neutron stars and the details of the
> impact.  I don't see how a supernova could result, since there's
> (basically) nothing left to fuse.  The results would either be merely a
> larger neutron star, a black hole, or fragments of a neutron star that
> are below the critical mass necessary to make neutron stars stable,
> which would then evaporate through neutron decay, liberating energy
> (read: explode).

Does this mean free neutron decay? So would this form hydrogen and
antineutrinos? If so, this would be an interesting stellar cycle
beginning with the fusion of hydrogen all the way to iron, then iron
via a neutron star gets converted back to hydrogen. A wonderful cosmic
cycle. I always thought that once there's only iron left in the
universe no new stars could form.

--
Matt Browne
My webpage is at http://www.meet-matt-browne.com
"As a race, we survive on planet Earth purely by geological consent."
Bill McGuire