When they finally meet, their merger leads to the formation of either a more massive neutron star, or—if the mass of the remnant exceeds the Tolman–Oppenheimer–Volkoff limit—a black hole.
Eventually, they come together in a catastrophic merger that distorts space and time (creating gravitational waves) and emits a brilliant flare of electromagnetic radiation, including visible, infrared, and ultraviolet light, x-rays, gamma rays, and radio waves.
The spectacular merger of two neutron stars that generated gravitational waves announced last fall likely did something else: birthed a black hole. This newly spawned black hole would be the lowest mass black hole ever found.
Two neutron stars begin to merge in this illustration, blasting a jet of high-speed particles and producing a cloud of debris. These gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) are the most powerful events in the universe.
A collision between two neutron stars, tightly bound on a decaying orbit, appears to be a relatively rare event. In the entire Milky Way galaxy, of all the 100 billion stars, scientists reckon there's only around 10 neutron star binaries destined for a collision.
Even if all the nuclear weapons in the world could be detonated on the surface of a neutron star, the effect on the neutron star would be virtually nil.
Similar thing will happen when three neutron star orbits each other and collide/merge. First two will collide and then take down the third one with them. Most likely it will create a black hole given the mass will be enormous.
In principle, a neutron star can live "forever," as they're one of the final states of a massive star, a star corpse, if you will. However, if they have a binary companion, like another neutron star or black hole, they may merge eventually and create a black hole or a more massive neutron star.
Since quark stars in the CFL phase can have higher maximum masses than ordinary neutron stars (Horvath & Lugones 2004), which, in the case of rapidly rotating stars, can reach values as high as 6–7 M⊙, the possibility that some stellar mass black holes are actually quark stars cannot be excluded a priori.
The term "kilonova" was coined by Brian Metzger, now a professor of physics at Columbia University, in a paper published in 2010, with Metzger and his colleagues pointing out that although a kilonova is less powerful than a supernova, it is still 1,000 times more powerful than a standard nova.
Multiple types of violent events in the cosmos that can lead to the creation of new objects. One example is a kilonova: When two neutron stars merge, it results in a massive explosion, an extremely bright flash of light, and, ultimately, a new stellar-mass black hole.
Neutron star collisions are no small affair. The event releases the equivalent of hundreds of millions times our Sun's energy, distorting spacetime as gravitational waves.
Four CCAS astrophysicists are part of a group of scientists who confirmed the first observation of a kilonova— two neutron stars merging in an explosive event 1,000 times brighter than a nova.
Under the right circumstances, these stars can actually spiral in and merge with each other in a violent splash. When they do, they throw off gas that cools and creates dust, temporarily shrouding the new star. This event is called a red nova (red because of the dust's effect).
A spoonful of neutron star suddenly appearing on Earth's surface would cause a giant explosion, and it would probably vaporize a good chunk of our planet with it. This article was first published in the September 2018 issue of Astronomy.
What would happen if a neutron star hit a black hole?
When a neutron star meets a black hole that's much more massive, such as the recently observed events, says Susan Scott, an astrophysicist with the Australian National University, "we expect that the two bodies circle each other in a spiral. Eventually the black hole would just swallow the neutron star like Pac-Man."
If the remnant star has a mass exceeding the Tolman–Oppenheimer–Volkoff limit, which ranges from 2.2–2.9 M ☉, the combination of degeneracy pressure and nuclear forces is insufficient to support the neutron star, causing it to collapse and form a black hole.
You would be squished flat. However, before you even arrived, if it's magnetism is very strong (such as a magnetar neutron star), you would have been instantly killed at quite some distance because the charge of every electron in your body would be neutered.
What would happen if you stepped on a neutron star?
Even if you were somehow magically transported onto the neutron star, therefore avoiding this energetic impact, the million-degree temperatures at the surface would vaporise (and ionise) you immediately.
5−3754 (also called RX J185635−3754, RX J185635−375, and various other designations) is a neutron star in the constellation Corona Australis. At approximately 400 light-years from Earth, it is the closest neutron star discovered to date.
The radiation in Hiroshima and Nagasaki today is on a par with the extremely low levels of background radiation (natural radioactivity) present anywhere on Earth. It has no effect on human bodies.
As other answers pointed out, if we just launched a nuke at the surface of the sun and blew it up there, it “would be barely a drop in the oceon. The energy we can add is miniscule.
What if a tablespoonful of a neutron star was brought to Earth?
Neutron stars are incredibly dense objects about 10 miles (16 km) across. Only their immense gravity keeps the matter inside from exploding; if you brought a spoonful of neutron star to Earth, the lack of gravity would cause it to expand rapidly.