quark star

American  

noun

Astronomy.

1. a hypothetical celestial object that is intermediate in density between a neutron star and a black hole, possibly the remnant of a massive neutron star with all particles reduced to strange quarks.

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quark star Scientific  

1. A superdense celestial object that is formed when the remnants of old stars collapse on themselves, denser than a neutron star but not dense enough to become a black hole. Quark stars were first hypothesized in the 1980s, but the first was not discovered until early 2002. Like neutron stars, quark stars are composed of neutrons that have undergone enough pressure by the collapse of the star to have lost their differentiation and dissolved into a mass of quarks and gluons. The up and down quarks of which neutrons are composed then change into strange quarks, with the resulting strange matter compacting into an even denser mass than a neutron star.

2. Also called strange star

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Example Sentences

Some astrophysicists believe that a little more squeezing makes the neutrons break down into their component quarks, creating a quark star.

From Literature

Active galactic nuclei, the supermassive black holes at the centers of galaxies, spew winds and radiation that might trigger a burst by striking nearby objects—a gas cloud, a small black hole, or a hypothetical quark star.

From Science Magazine

A nebula A black hole A quark star Tea Caravan Pasty A US TV network apologised for the behaviour of British pop star M.I.A. during the Super Bowl's half-time show.

From BBC