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neutron
1. An uncharged elementary particle that has a mass nearly equal to that of the proton and is present in all known atomic nuclei except the hydrogen nucleus.
2. A neutral hadron that is stable in the atomic nucleus but decays into a protron, an electron and an antineutrino with a mean life of 12 minutes outside the nucleus. Neutronics exist in all atomic nuclei except normal hydrogen. Reported in 1932 by James Chadwick.
This entry is located in the following units: neutro-, neuter-, neutr-, neut- + (page 2) -tron, -tronic, -tronics + (page 14)
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neutron (s) (noun), neutrons (pl)
An atomic particle having high mass but no electrical charge: Neutrons are present in the nuclei of all atoms except hydrogen.

This entry is located in the following unit: Astronomy and related astronomical terms (page 16)
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neutron star (s) (noun), neutron stars (pl)
1. The result of the collapse of the remnant from a supernova explosion: The mass of a neutron star exceeds the chandrasekhar limit, but is less than that required for gravity to continue the collapse down to a black hole.

The "chandrasekhar limit" is the upper limit for the mass of a white dwarf star, beyond which the star collapses to a neutron star or a black hole. A star having a mass above this limit will continue to collapse to form a neutron star.

The name of the neutron star is derived from the fact that the object is so condensed that most of its material is in the form of neutrons.

It was named after Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar (1910-1995), a U.S. astrophysicist.

2. A very small core of a "super-dense" star: A neutron star is composed mostly of neutrons (electrically neutral subatomic particles in the baryon family).

Neutron stars are estimated to be so condensed that a fragment, the size of a sugar cube, would weigh as much as all the people on the Earth put together.

—As seen in the Scientific American Science Desk Reference;
John Wiley & Sons, Inc.; New York; 1999; page 169.
This entry is located in the following unit: Astronomy and related astronomical terms (page 17)