How long does it take for a neutron star to form?

[Nars Glinley]

I understand that when a star in a certain size range goes supernova, the remaining mass turns into a neutron star. How long does this take? Seconds? Weeks? Millennia? I've read the wiki article and it doesn't say.

Thanks.

[beowulff]

I understand that when a star in a certain size range goes supernova, the remaining mass turns into a neutron star. How long does this take? Seconds? Weeks? Millennia? I've read the wiki article and it doesn't say.

Thanks.
From burnout to bang takes around 1 second (!). I would suspect the remaining Neutron star forms at that instant.

http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,963820-8,00.html

[Nars Glinley]

From burnout to bang takes around 1 second (!). I would suspect the remaining Neutron star forms at that instant.

http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,963820-8,00.html
That's amazing. Thanks for the link!

[Squink]

Supernova 1987A, produced a rapidly vibrating neutron star within two years of the detonation. (http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v338/n6213/abs/338319a0.html)

[Chronos]

That's just the time it took us to notice it (the afterglow of the supernova would have overwhelmed it for about that long). The actual formation would indeed take something on the order of a second, as beowulff posted.