How do we know whats happening in neutron stars?

Question

I watched the kurzgesagt (https://youtu.be/udFxKZRyQt4) about neutron stars and he explained the inside of the stars are basically just a huge atomic core. But how do we know that? We have a hard time seeing atoms in labs here on Earth, how is it possible to see them light years away?

In: Physics

Answer 1

We aren’t looking at one atom in a star we are looking at the byproduct of billions of atoms, in addition knowing how atoms operate at various temperatures and pressures enables us to predict what is happening in a star, when those predictions match observations we can be fairly sure what is happening – What happens during the life of a large star. Part 3: Neutron stars, Pulsars and Magnetars