Go to https://ground.news/drbecky to read up on research and the way news interprets it for us. Sign up through my link to get 30% off unlimited access this month. A new research study has claimed to have found an object in the elusive "mass gap" between the heaviest neutron star, and the lightest (i.e least heavy) black hole. Finding objects like this helps us refine our physics of when the collapse from neutron star to black hole happens - a limit known as the Tolman Oppenheimer Volkoff limit. 00:00 - Introduction 02:06 - Ground News 03:38 - How you calculate the maximum mass of a neutron star 06:19 - The Tolman-Oppenhimer-Volkoff limit 08:42 - How Barr and collaborators found this mass gap object 10:27 - How Barr and collaborators worked out the object's mass 13:07 - Can we tell if its a heavy neutron star or a lightweight black hole? 16:38 - Outro 16:58 - Bloopers Barr et al. (2024) - https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.adg3005 Suwa et al. (2018; minimum mass of neutron star theoretical) - https://arxiv.org/pdf/1808.02328.pdf Martinez et al. (2015; minimum neutron star mass measured ) - https://arxiv.org/pdf/1509.08805.pdf Volkoff & Oppenheimer (1939; first attempt at theoretical maximum mass of neutron star) - https://journals.aps.org/pr/pdf/10.1103/PhysRev.55.374 Rezzolla et al. (2018; constraints from LIGO on maximum neutron star mass) - https://arxiv.org/pdf/1711.00314.pdf Kalogera & Baym (1996; more refinement on maximum mass of neutron star) - https://arxiv.org/pdf/astro-ph/9608059v1.pdf Bombaci (1996; more refinement on maximum mass of neutron star) - https://articles.adsabs.harvard.edu/pdf/1996A%26A...305..871B Özel et al. (2010; mass distribution of black holes in our galaxy including lowest mass black hole) - https://arxiv.org/pdf/1006.2834.pdf Hessels et al. (2006; fastest spinning neutron star) - https://arxiv.org/pdf/astro-ph/0601337.pdf Fonseca et al. (2021; maximum neutron star mass) - https://arxiv.org/pdf/2104.00880.pdf Video filmed on a Sony ⍺7 IV --- 📚 My new book, "A Brief History of Black Holes", out NOW in hardback, paperback, e-book and audiobook (which I narrated myself!): http://lnk.to/DrBecky --- 👕 My new merch, including JWST designs, are available here (with worldwide shipping!): null --- 🎧 Royal Astronomical Society Podcast that I co-host: podfollow.com/supermassive --- 🔔 Don't forget to subscribe and click the little bell icon to be notified when I post a new video! --- 👩🏽‍💻 I'm Dr. Becky Smethurst, an astrophysicist at the University of Oxford (Christ Church). I love making videos about science with an unnatural level of enthusiasm. I like to focus on how we know things, not just what we know. And especially, the things we still don't know. If you've ever wondered about something in space and couldn't find an answer online - you can ask me! My day job is to do research into how supermassive black holes can affect the galaxies that they live in. In particular, I look at whether the energy output from the disk of material orbiting around a growing supermassive black hole can stop a galaxy from forming stars. http://drbecky.uk.com/ https://rebeccasmethurst.co.uk/