Black Hole vs. Neutron Star: What's the Difference?
Read the comparison below, or explore it visually. Create a visual lesson comparing black hole and neutron star using available credits or plan allowance.
A neutron star is the ultra-dense, city-sized core left after a massive star explodes, held up by pressure between packed neutrons, while a black hole forms when the leftover core is too heavy for anything to stop its collapse, so not even light can escape it. Both are remnants of supernovae, and the mass of the collapsing core decides which one forms.
At a glance
| Black Hole | Neutron Star | |
|---|---|---|
| What it is | Region light cannot escape from | Ball of tightly packed neutrons |
| Surface | None; an event horizon marks the edge | Solid crust, about 20 km across |
| Mass | Above roughly 2-3 Suns for stellar ones | Typically about 1.4-2 times the Sun |
| Light given off | None itself; infalling gas can glow | Emits radiation, often seen as a pulsar |
| How we detect it | Effects on nearby stars and gas, gravitational waves | Radio and X-ray pulses, gravitational waves |
Which should you use?
Expect a black hole when a collapsing stellar core exceeds the maximum mass neutron pressure can support, or at the centres of galaxies, like the giant one imaged in galaxy M87 in 2019.
Expect a neutron star when a supernova leaves a core of roughly 1.4 to 2 solar masses, such as the rapidly spinning pulsar at the heart of the Crab Nebula.