Is it a star of quarks?

2002/06/01 Elhuyar Zientzia Iturria: Elhuyar aldizkaria

• Astrofisika

NASA astronomers claim to have inspected a star of quarks, a mass of elementary particles of a few kilometers that weighs more than our Sun.

Theoreticians commented in 1980 that there could be quark stars and now a NASA telescope has discovered a star supposedly of this type: He has been called RX J1856. Although initially thought to be a neutron star, astronomers, by their small size, have rejected this hypothesis.

On the contrary, neutrons and protons can be dissolved in an even denser mass, formed by their quarkas. This mass is called unknown matter and consists of three basic quarkes of protons and neutrons. This matter, apparently stable, can grow as crystals as it feeds on the protons and neutrons it finds on its way.

However, due to the temperature changes that occur in the star found, it is difficult to determine its diameter, so we can still not ensure that it is a star of quarks.