[net.physics] re neutron star temp and color

jay@npois.UUCP (04/04/85)

	If you don't consider relativistic reddening, the temperature
of a fresh neutron star would give it a black body color in the very
hard ultraviolet.
	It has been suggested that neutron star material is a nearly
perfect conducter of heat and electricity, and that it has a very high
specific heat.
	The actual temperature should be somewhere around 10 to 100
million degrees K, C, or F, all are close enough.
	The relativistic reddening effect will vary according to
how close it is to blackhole mass. It can have any range from increasing
wavelength by about 10 percent to almost complete photon capture.
	If you ever get a cold neutron star, it should appear like
a mirror that makes everything reddish. But don't hold your breath,
they don't get don to room temperature very quickly.
	Also, you should note that there is almost always a lot of
matter around a neutron star, which would tend to obscure your view
of it as a black body. You would tend to see the black body temperature
of the last opaque layer of material.

			Anton Winteroak

ps If you got close enough to see it naked eye, it would be a very bright
deep blue, and then you would die, either from the radiation, or from
the tidal forces converting your body to a long string of atoms.