# Neutron Star - Look and feel? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [May 3, 2006, 7:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/neutron-star-look-and-feel/355283 "2006-05-03T19:41:13Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Jake](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f475e1/32.png) [@Jake](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jake)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2006, 7:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/neutron-star-look-and-feel/355283/1 "2006-05-03T19:41:13Z")
Imagine you had an anti-gravity device that allowed you to land on a neutron star. (I know, quite a supposition) What would you be landing on? What would it look and feel like? It reflects light, would it be shiny? Silvery? Would it taste like chicken? šŸ˜ƒ ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2006, 8:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/neutron-star-look-and-feel/355283/2 "2006-05-03T20:21:59Z")
I recal a character in a Larry Niven story clasiming that it would be a perfect mirror, since it would pull everything flat. That doesnā€™t convince me ā€“ even if tryue, it couldā€™ve been perfectly black. Besides, if everythuing was flat, where would Robert Forwardā€™s aliens from **Dragonā€™s Egg** be? ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2006, 9:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/neutron-star-look-and-feel/355283/3 "2006-05-03T21:13:15Z")
Iā€™m going to guess that ā€œblackā€ would be a pretty good guess. Except, of course, that itā€™s hot, so itā€™d also be glowing. Which is not a contradiction; it just means that itā€™d be glowing in a very specific, well-understood manner. You could also wait for it to cool down (which they all do eventually, since thereā€™s no longer any energy source keeping them warm), in which case itā€™d just look like what most folks think of as black and not glowing. As for texture, the interior is a superfluid (so itā€™d behave like, say, water, only more so), but thatā€™s surrounded by a crust, which is expected to be somewhat crunchier. Just exactly how much crunchier is something of a matter of debate, but itā€™s generally supposed to be far more rigid than any Earthly material. The biggest evidence for a super-rigid crust is the ā€œstarquakesā€ observed in pulsar timing data; were the crust of any mere sensible strength, then all of the energy we see sporadically dissipated in the quakes would instead have dissipated almost immediately when the neutron star formed. ---
**Author:** ![Mathochist](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c89c15/32.png) [@Mathochist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mathochist)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2006, 3:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/neutron-star-look-and-feel/355283/4 "2006-05-04T03:24:15Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > like water, only more so Isnā€™t that a metafluid? ---
**Author:** ![MikeS](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/919ad9/32.png) [@MikeS](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MikeS)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2006, 2:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/neutron-star-look-and-feel/355283/5 "2006-05-04T14:10:10Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > Iā€™m going to guess that ā€œblackā€ would be a pretty good guess. Except, of course, that itā€™s hot, so itā€™d also be glowing. I assume youā€™re referring to blackbody radiation here, but how would the neutrons thermalize with the electromagnetic field (i.e. the photons)? They donā€™t have charge, so the photons and the neutrons should just act like two non-interacting systems. Or am I missing something? ---
**Author:** ![Squink](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b5e925/32.png) [@Squink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Squink)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2006, 2:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/neutron-star-look-and-feel/355283/6 "2006-05-04T14:24:33Z")
> [@MikeS](#): > > Or am I missing something? There are lots of electrons and protons in a neutron star: [What generates the magnetic field of a neutron star ?](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=84896) > [@Chronos](#): > > some models estimate that as much as 10% of a neutron starā€™s mass is protons, with an equal number of electrons to match. ---
**Author:** ![Lemur866](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lemur866/32/434_2.png) [@Lemur866](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lemur866)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2006, 3:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/neutron-star-look-and-feel/355283/7 "2006-05-04T15:45:43Z")
Back to how it would ā€œfeelā€. Thing is, you couldnā€™t touch it. If you have an antigravity field that protects you from the gravity of the neutron star the field will have to surround your whole body. If you stick the tips of your fingers out of the field to touch the neutron star, the tips of your fingers are going to be pulled off. ---
**Author:** ![DarrenS](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/977dab/32.png) [@DarrenS](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DarrenS)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2006, 6:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/neutron-star-look-and-feel/355283/8 "2006-05-04T18:23:04Z")
Another [thread](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=143795) on the physical properties of neutron stars and the macroscopic properties of Neutronium. ---
**Author:** ![Ethilrist](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ethilrist/32/4604_2.png) [@Ethilrist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ethilrist)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2006, 6:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/neutron-star-look-and-feel/355283/9 "2006-05-04T18:28:25Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > I recal a character in a Larry Niven story clasiming that it would be a perfect mirror, since it would pull everything flat. That doesnā€™t convince me ā€“ even if tryue, it couldā€™ve been perfectly black. Besides, if everythuing was flat, where would Robert Forwardā€™s aliens from **Dragonā€™s Egg** be? In _Protector,_ the neutronium was a perfect mirror because it was encased in a Slaver stasis field, which is mirrorlike. I think something made of neutronium would look more like [this.](http://thecia.com.au/star-trek/original-series/2/03b2.jpg) ---
**Author:** ![Lemur866](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lemur866/32/434_2.png) [@Lemur866](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lemur866)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2006, 7:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/neutron-star-look-and-feel/355283/10 "2006-05-04T19:05:27Z")
Niven hijack. No, the neutronium wasnā€™t encased in a stasis field. Louis Wu and the Trinoc both mistook the cold neutron star for a slaver stasis box because both reflected neutrinos from their deep radar. ---
**Author:** ![pravnik](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/8edcca/32.png) [@pravnik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pravnik)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2006, 9:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/neutron-star-look-and-feel/355283/11 "2006-05-04T21:37:44Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > Iā€™m going to guess that ā€œblackā€ would be a pretty good guess. Except, of course, that itā€™s hot, so itā€™d also be glowing. Itā€™d look like Halle Berry? > [@Chronos](#): > > You could also wait for it to cool down (which they all do eventually, since thereā€™s no longer any energy source keeping them warm), in which case itā€™d just look like what most folks think of as black and not glowing. Neutron Star Jones? ---
**Author:** ![Ethilrist](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ethilrist/32/4604_2.png) [@Ethilrist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ethilrist)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2006, 2:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/neutron-star-look-and-feel/355283/12 "2006-05-05T14:41:43Z")
> [@Lemur866](#): > > Niven hijack. > > No, the neutronium wasnā€™t encased in a stasis field. Louis Wu and the Trinoc both mistook the cold neutron star for a slaver stasis box because both reflected neutrinos from their deep radar. Ummā€¦ dudeā€¦ Protector. Not Tales of Known Space. Big, doughnut-shaped space station out in the cometary halo, with a ball in the center of the doughnut, at the center of which was an 8ā€™ diameter ball of neutronium, kept in a stasis field due to the surface gravity measured in the millions of gravities. If this online encyclopedia is a valid reference, see [here.](http://encyclopedia.thefreedictionary.com/Protector+(novel)) woo! providing a cite for a hijack! yeah, baby!