Starship Asterisk*

the picture shown today (monday oct 17, 2005) shows two neutron stars about to collide and generate a short gamma ray burst.

if two stars were about to collide, would not their closest points to each other begin to reach out towards each other? are neutron stars so dense that even at close approach they would keep a spherical shape?

would the effect of forces other than gravity between the two stars be visible?

How many threads is this going to generate,,,

Please check for other topics all ready on the board?
Thanks.

Norval

i did look through the "collision of stars" topic

it addressed my first question only tangentially. it seemed interested in all stars and the improbabilty of collision rather than the specifics of an actual collision of neutron stars.

sorry to have offended the protocol

javascriptemoticon(':oops:')
Embarassed

still, my questions remain unanswered

To be honest, I wouldn't want to be caught in the middle.

It would seem to me the as they neared there would be enormous gravity potentials of disruption and possible material exchange. At least to the point of deformation?

Norval

solid bodies will break up once they pass a certain minimum distance (i think it is called the roche limit for moons and planets, named after the first astronomer to calculate it). the question is whether that would apply to neutron stars. how does neutron star degenerate matter behave? if it acts as ordinary solid matter, is it so dense that its attraction to itself makes the roche limit much smaller? or does it act as a gas/liquid, like the sun's corona or flares?
javascriptemoticon(':shock:')
Shocked

You should use this topc to continue. It was there first, and it contains other related threads references.