Question: Why do neutron stars exist? What is their purpose?

Evan Keane answered on 24 Jun 2011:

Neutron star exist because some stars, when they die in supernova explosions, become them (or the leftovers do at least!). You can read about a question I had about how that happens here: http://ias.im/44.62

As for their purpose? I don’t know of anything deep. I don’t think there is a “meaning to the Universe” or “meaning of life” etc. But astronomers do use neutron stars for a purpose. We use them like clocks, actually the radio pulses they emit are such great clocks they are sometimes called “super clocks in space”! If you click here: http://ias.im/44.140 you will be able to hear what I mean. Astronomers use the pulses from the star like ticks of a clock. And clocks in space, where there is very strong gravity, are exactly the kind of things you need to test Einstein’s theory of gravity (because gravity effects time!). So that is one purpose astronomers have given neutron stars! 😉