Yun-Wei Yu

In a distant galaxy, at a distance that light takes 11 billion years to cross, something flashed. The Einstein Probe X-ray telescope caught a brief, needle-prick-like burst: it lasted only a few dozen seconds.

The crust of a neutron star is not just a solid shell. Under pressures of billions of tons per square centimeter, atoms lose their electrons, and the remaining nuclei arrange into a rigid crystal lattice, reminiscent of a honeycomb, but made of matter a trillion times denser than steel.

A massive star ends its life in a spectacular collapse: the core compresses into a neutron star or a black hole, while the outer layers fly off in a dazzling supernova.