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當一顆擁有巨大質量的恒星臨到油盡燈枯的一刻，就會以震撼的超—新星爆炸，向宇宙宣示它燦爛的一生。當絢爛歸於平淡之後，遺下的恒星核心—一顆超高密度的中子星。第一顆中子星早於1967年被博士研究生喬絲琳．貝爾無意中發現，她只用了一具構造簡單的天線，便接收到來自狐狸座一種具規律性的脈沖電波，當時她把這個射電源戲稱為「綠色小矮人一號」。中子星非常細小，整個星體被高度壓縮至大約10公里直徑，一茶匙的中子星便相當於在地球上一億噸物質的重量。新形成的中子星會以超高速自轉，有時速度可高達每秒鐘數百次，造成電波的脈沖現象，天文學家稱這類中子星為脈沖星。最新的研究更指出中子星的外殼具超高硬度特性，比鋼材的硬度還高出百億倍！
The little green man from outer space
When a massive star burns up its fuel, it ends its life in an extravagant show, a supernova explosion, exhaling matters into space and leaving behind a super dense core that we call a neutron star. In 1967 Jocelyn Bell, using a primitive antenna, found a faint but regular signal, which she dubbed "Little Green Man 1", in the direction of the constellation Vulpecula. The source was eventually identified as a rapidly rotating neutron star. A newborn neutron star could rotate exceedingly fast, up to sereral hundred times per second. Neutron stars are small, about 10 km in diameter. Neutron star materials are highly compressed. A teaspoonful would weigh about 100 million tons. Recent studies point out that the shell of a neutron star is likely to be 10 billion times stronger than steel. ■甄枝強 資深天文愛好者 ■圖片來源：ESA, NASA
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