---
title: "Compact object"
chunk: 2/3
source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Compact_object"
category: "reference"
tags: "science, encyclopedia"
date_saved: "2026-05-05T13:31:55.959127+00:00"
instance: "kb-cron"
---

In certain binary stars containing a white dwarf, mass is transferred from the companion star onto the white dwarf, eventually pushing it over the Chandrasekhar limit. Electrons react with protons to form neutrons and thus no longer supply the necessary pressure to resist gravity, causing the star to collapse. If the center of the star is composed mostly of carbon and oxygen then such a gravitational collapse will ignite runaway fusion of the carbon and oxygen, resulting in a Type Ia supernova that entirely blows apart the star before the collapse can become irreversible. If the center is composed mostly of magnesium or heavier elements, the collapse continues. As the density further increases, the remaining electrons react with the protons to form more neutrons. The collapse continues until (at higher density) the neutrons become degenerate. A new equilibrium is possible after the star shrinks by three orders of magnitude, to a radius between 10 and 20 km. This is a neutron star.
Although the first neutron star was not observed until 1967 when the first radio pulsar was discovered, neutron stars were proposed by Baade and Zwicky in 1933, only one year after the neutron was discovered in 1932. They realized that because neutron stars are so dense, the collapse of an ordinary star to a neutron star would liberate a large amount of gravitational potential energy, providing a possible explanation for supernovae. This is the explanation for supernovae of types Ib, Ic, and II. Such supernovae occur when the iron core of a massive star exceeds the Chandrasekhar limit and collapses to a neutron star.
Like electrons, neutrons are fermions. They therefore provide neutron degeneracy pressure to support a neutron star against collapse. In addition, repulsive neutron-neutron interactions provide additional pressure. Like the Chandrasekhar limit for white dwarfs, there is a limiting mass for neutron stars: the Tolman–Oppenheimer–Volkoff limit, where these forces are no longer sufficient to hold up the star. As the forces in dense hadronic matter are not well understood, this limit is not known exactly but is thought to be between 2 and 3 M☉. If more mass accretes onto a neutron star, eventually this mass limit will be reached. What happens next is not completely clear.

== Black holes ==

As more mass is accumulated, equilibrium against gravitational collapse exceeds its breaking point. Once the star's pressure is insufficient to counterbalance gravity, a catastrophic gravitational collapse occurs within milliseconds. The escape velocity at the surface, already at least 1⁄3 light speed, quickly reaches the velocity of light. At that point no energy or matter can escape and a black hole has formed. Because all light and matter is trapped within an event horizon, a black hole appears truly black, except for the possibility of very faint Hawking radiation. It is presumed that the collapse will continue inside the event horizon.
In the classical theory of general relativity, a gravitational singularity occupying no more than a point will form. There may be a new halt of the catastrophic gravitational collapse at a size comparable to the Planck length, but at these lengths there is no known theory of gravity to predict what will happen. Adding any extra mass to the black hole will cause the radius of the event horizon to increase linearly with the mass of the central singularity. This will induce certain changes in the properties of the black hole, such as reducing the tidal stress near the event horizon, and reducing the gravitational field strength at the horizon. However, there will not be any further qualitative changes in the structure associated with any mass increase.

=== Alternative black hole models ===
Fuzzball
Gravastar
Dark-energy star
Black star
Magnetospheric eternally collapsing object
Dark star
Primordial black holes

== Exotic stars ==

An exotic star is a hypothetical compact star composed of something other than electrons, protons, and neutrons balanced against gravitational collapse by degeneracy pressure or other quantum properties. These include strange stars (composed of strange matter) and the more speculative preon stars (composed of preons).
Exotic stars are hypothetical, but observations released by the Chandra X-Ray Observatory on April 10, 2002, detected two candidate strange stars, designated RX J1856.5-3754 and 3C58, which had previously been thought to be neutron stars. Based on the known laws of physics, the former appeared much smaller and the latter much colder than they should, suggesting that they are composed of material denser than neutronium. However, these observations are met with skepticism by researchers who say the results were not conclusive.

=== Quark stars and strange stars ===

If neutrons are squeezed enough at a high temperature, they will decompose into their component quarks, forming what is known as a quark matter. In this case, the star will shrink further and become denser, but instead of a total collapse into a black hole, it is possible that the star may stabilize itself and survive in this state indefinitely, so long as no more mass is added. It has, to an extent, become a very large nucleon. A star in this hypothetical state is called a "quark star" or more specifically a "strange star", because under sufficiently high pressure it become energetically more favorable for one third of the quarks to transform to strange quarks. The pulsar 3C58 has been suggested as a possible quark star. Most neutron stars are thought to hold a core of quark matter but this has proven difficult to determine observationally.

=== Preon stars ===
A preon star is a proposed type of compact star made of preons, a group of hypothetical subatomic particles. Preon stars would be expected to have huge densities, exceeding 1023 kilogram per cubic meter – intermediate between quark stars and black holes.
Preon stars could originate from supernova explosions or the Big Bang; however, current observations from particle accelerators speak against the existence of preons.

=== Q stars ===