How heavy is a teaspoon of neutron star material?
Answer
Billions of tons
Neutron stars represent one of the most extreme states of matter known in the universe, resulting from the tremendous gravitational compression of stellar matter. Because the mass of several Suns is squeezed into a volume comparable to a small city (around 20 kilometers across), the resulting density is staggeringly high. If one could physically scoop out a small sample, such as a single teaspoonful, its weight would equate to billions of tons. This illustrates the profound physical density achieved when neutron degeneracy pressure successfully counteracts gravity to prevent total collapse into a black hole.
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