# Neutron Star Question **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [September 22, 2009, 9:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/neutron-star-question/511150 "2009-09-22T21:57:42Z")\ **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:** [September 22, 2009, 9:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/neutron-star-question/511150/1 "2009-09-22T21:57:42Z")
Hypothetically speaking, if one was able to “be” on the surface of a neutron star, what would the surface be like? Come on now, this is a thought question, I realize nobody can ever do this. (Yet) 🙂 Would It be shiny? Rough or Smooth? What would it feel like if you knocked on it with a hammer? Could you take a spoon full of it? Or is it like a plasma, kind of gooey like hot lava? Or is this the “Exotic Matter” that (Possibly) would be needed for a wormhole? Jake the Curious ---
**Author:** ![The\_Hamster\_King](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/8edcca/32.png) [@The\_Hamster\_King](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Hamster_King)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2009, 10:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/neutron-star-question/511150/2 "2009-09-22T22:08:24Z")
If you were ON the surface of a neutron star you’d BE the surface of a neutron star. The gravity would smear you into a smudge a few atoms thick almost instantly. ---
**Author:** ![Valgard](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/7feea3/32.png) [@Valgard](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Valgard)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2009, 10:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/neutron-star-question/511150/3 "2009-09-22T22:18:19Z")
Well it’s extremely dense material, crammed into a small space by it’s own gravitational pull. I assume it’d be quite smooth (bumps would get evened out immediately) and pretty damn hard - you’d have trouble deforming it (since it’s held together so firmly and as noted the deformations immediately even themselves out) and anything of “normal” matter that you hit it with would just get absorbed into the main mass. ---
**Author:** ![dracoi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/90db22/32.png) [@dracoi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dracoi)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2009, 11:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/neutron-star-question/511150/4 "2009-09-22T23:01:24Z")
As I understand, there’s likely some amount of normal atoms, especially on the surface of the neutron star, which would be mostly metallic. Given the high gravity, you’d expect this to be very smooth, and it might even be shiny except that it would be white-hot and producing its own light. You’d expect complicated magnetic fields and probably electric currents… Touching it would probably give you quite a shock (but since you’d be simultaneously smashed into a paste and burned to a crisp, a little electricity is the least of your worries). This is all speculative, though. The [Wikipedia article on neutron stars](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neutron_star) mentions that we aren’t even sure what phase of matter to expect in neutron stars and therefore aren’t 100% certain of their density or size. ---
**Author:** ![Jake](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f475e1/32.png) [@Jake](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jake)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2009, 11:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/neutron-star-question/511150/5 "2009-09-22T23:12:17Z")
Hamster King: I realize this, but this a a thought problem, not real. ---
**Author:** ![Polycarp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/82dd89/32.png) [@Polycarp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Polycarp)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2009, 11:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/neutron-star-question/511150/6 "2009-09-22T23:16:44Z")
Relevant “hard” science fiction: _Dragon’s Egg_ by Robert Forward. Intelligent life evolves on the surface of a “cool” neutron star. Phenomena they encounter are depicted with as much scientific accuracy as possible given the hypothetical scenario. ---
**Author:** ![DeptfordX](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e68b1a/32.png) [@DeptfordX](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DeptfordX)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2009, 12:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/neutron-star-question/511150/7 "2009-09-23T00:32:55Z")
That is a really good book, I have to second that reccomendation. ---
**Author:** ![Jonathan\_Chance](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jonathan_chance/32/701_2.png) [@Jonathan\_Chance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jonathan_Chance)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2009, 12:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/neutron-star-question/511150/8 "2009-09-23T00:40:19Z")
Wouldn’t it almost require that anything collapsed onto it, say my frail human body, would become instantly redistributed all across the sphere? My thinking is thus: If it was possible for my mass to be squashed flat by the neutron star’s gravity but my mass remained on the side on which I stood for a nano-second would that eventually have the impact of causing the star to wobble in it’s rotation? ---
**Author:** ![Squink](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b5e925/32.png) [@Squink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Squink)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2009, 1:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/neutron-star-question/511150/9 "2009-09-23T01:00:53Z")
> [@Jake](#): > > Rough or Smooth? > [@](#): > > “Neutron stars are very hot when they are formed in a supernova, and then they cool rapidly and form a semisolid crust. Our observation of a relatively young star like the Crab is important because it shows that this skin, if it had irregularities when it first ‘froze,’ has by now become quite smooth,” says Bernard F. Schutz, director of the Albert Einstein Institute in Germany. [LIGO Observations Probe the Dynamics of the Crab Pulsar](http://media.caltech.edu/press_releases/13154) ---
**Author:** ![astro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9dc877/32.png) [@astro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astro)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2009, 1:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/neutron-star-question/511150/10 "2009-09-23T01:28:01Z")
A good book about a [high gravity planet.](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mission_of_Gravity) ---
**Author:** ![Jake](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f475e1/32.png) [@Jake](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jake)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2009, 12:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/neutron-star-question/511150/11 "2009-09-23T12:41:57Z")
Good answers. Thanks all. Jake ---
**Author:** ![dracoi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/90db22/32.png) [@dracoi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dracoi)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2009, 5:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/neutron-star-question/511150/12 "2009-09-23T17:09:11Z")
> [@Jonathan\_Chance](#): > > Wouldn’t it almost require that anything collapsed onto it, say my frail human body, would become instantly redistributed all across the sphere? > > My thinking is thus: > > If it was possible for my mass to be squashed flat by the neutron star’s gravity but my mass remained on the side on which I stood for a nano-second would that eventually have the impact of causing the star to wobble in it’s rotation? You wouldn’t be evenly spread, but you’d get squashed quite flat. I think the tolerance are estimated be something like +/- 5 mm. (Actually, this is ignoring the heat of most neutron stars. Really, you’d be vaporized, spend some time in the one-meter thick atmosphere and eventually your heavier elements would settle down to the surface). As for wobble… if you’re not already causing the Earth to wobble, a neutron star (with millions of times more mass than Earth) is certainly not going to be bothered by you.