![]() ![]() These stellar remnants measure about 20 kilometers (12.5 miles) across. This collapse leaves behind the most dense object known an object with the mass of a sun squished down to the size of a city. (Stars with higher masses will continue to collapse into stellar-mass black holes.) If the core of the collapsing star is between about 1 and 3 solar masses, these newly-created neutrons can stop the collapse, leaving behind a neutron star. The very central region of the star the core collapses, crushing together every proton and electron into a neutron. Neutron stars are formed when a massive star runs out of fuel and collapses. (Credit: NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center) A neutron star is the densest object astronomers can observe directly, crushing half a million times Earth's mass into a sphere about 12 miles across, or similar in size to Manhattan Island, as shown in this illustration.
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