Neutron Stars: The Most Extreme Objects in the Universe

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We’ve traveled to lots of weird places on this show - from the interiors of black holes to the time before the big bang. But today I want to take you on a journey to what has got to be the weirdest place in the modern universe - a place where matter exists in states I bet you’ve never heard of. Today we take a journey to the center of the neutron star.

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Hosted by Matt O'Dowd
Written by Matt O'Dowd
Graphics by Leonardo Scholzer, Yago Ballarini, Pedro Osinski, Adriano Leal & Stephanie Faria
GFX Visualizations: Ajay Manuel
Directed by Andrew Kornhaber
Assistant Producer: Setare Gholipour
Executive Producers: Eric Brown & Andrew Kornhaber

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[supaflylob]

his palms are sweaty, knees weak, arms are heavy
hes suffering from radiation poisoning already
nuclear spaghetti

[crowlsyong]

How did PBS get blessed with such a great host? Seriously Matt is so awesome. Cheers!

[soasertsus]

At the start of the video I was like "oh please Matt, states of matter I've never heard of, I've been watching this channel long enough of course I know about quark-gluon plasma and strange matter don't be silly." But I shouldn't have been so overconfident, I never saw nuclear lasagna coming.

[luthermcgee]

Neutron stars are my favorite topic in stellar physics. But now, for the first time, I can say, with conviction, that they are the most tortured corpses in the universe. You have a new subscriber. You even mentioned The Pauli Exclusion Principal which was inevitable. Great video!

[melaniabladeofmiquella]

PBS is one of the highest production value channels on the natural universe out there, with fantastic hosts. Just love you guys!

[YathishShamaraj]

You have to appreciate the script writer for consistently ending all scripts of all episodes over almost a decade with the phrase "space time" 👏👏👏👏👌

[tayzonday]

Neutron stars call me the most extreme carbon in the universe.

[Wonkabar]

Sucks to be a proton in a neutron star

[nicholasrose]

There is literally **no one** I would put more faith in to save the galaxy than Matt O’Dowd. Thank you for keeping us safe!!

[malectric]

I'd always imagined that the surface of a neutron star would be the smoothest surface in the universe. After all, a ball of chromed steel is pretty granular by comparison with its volume some 10k greater than a ball of nuclear matter.

[grimwatcher]

Those transitions to the ending words of spacetime are so smooth, they're used as a superfluid in particle accelerators.

[dominikbeitat]

"A place where matter exists in states that I bet you never heard of."
Dude, I just had Michael Stevens telling me that ordinary objects don't even exist in the first place. Try me.

Edit: Gotta hand it to you, Matt, I didn't expect lasagna.

[logan_wolf]

Neutron stars have always been the most fascinating things to me, I love learning everything I can about them.

[joepeach]

Thank you PBS and all involved for opening my mind a little more with each episode.

[michaellee]

THE best explanation of neutron stars I've ever heard. Sometimes this stuff goes over my head, but this was spot-on.. Thanks Matt, and all at SpaceTime!

[UzairH]

Yes! Neutron stars - by far one of my favorite subjects in astronomy/cosmology! Thanks Matt for this episode :)

[Spielorjh]

I was seriously inspired as a kid by Robert L. Forward's "Dragon's Egg" series, rigorously postulating how life on a neutron star would exist. I wonder how the science holds up now.

[infinitebombdog]

"A place where matter exists in states i bet youve never heard of"
I love when Matt talks nerdy to me🥰

[alexbourdeau]

Great info! Just one correction: Jupiter and Saturn revolve around the sun in roughly 12 and 29 Earth years, not 5 and 12. Thanks for this series, PBS television needs to present this type of content more often.

[StrongMed]

Neutron star: Ah ha! I am the most extreme object in the universe!

Quark star: Hold my beer...