Exotic 'Electroweak' Star Predicted

[Odin2005]

When a star dies, there are a few different forms the stellar corpse can take. Now researchers have added another variety of 'dead' star to the list: the electroweak star.

Although astrophysicists have only speculated about the existence of electroweak stars for a short time (see "Why Are Quark Stars So Strange"), scientists at Case Western Reserve University, Ohio, have detailed new predictions about the electroweak star's characteristics in a new paper submitted to the journal Physical Review Letters.

Stellar Corpses

When a star dies, depending on its mass, it has several options. When a sun-like star runs out of fuel, it puffs up into an angry red giant, eventually losing its outer layers to space, leaving a compact mass of "electron degenerate" matter behind. This remnant is called a white dwarf, the kind of star our sun will turn into in about 4 billion years time.

However, larger mass stars may explode as supernovae, leaving behind rapidly spinning neutron stars (composed mainly of neutron degenerate matter), or even collapse entirely to form black holes. But these scenarios of gravitational collapse may only be part of the story...

The rest of the article here: http://news.discovery.com/space/exotic-electroweak-star-predicted.html

All I can say is COOL!