• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to footer
Zippy Facts Logo

Zippy Facts

Interesting Random Facts

  • Animals
  • Culture
  • Firsts
  • Food
  • Geography
  • Health
  • History
  • Inventions
  • Language
  • Mythology
  • Odds
  • People
  • Religion
  • Science
  • Space
  • Universe
  • World
You are here: Home / Universe / What Is the Heaviest Thing in the Universe?

What Is the Heaviest Thing in the Universe?

July 20, 2020 by Karen Hill

As a big star runs out of fuel to burn, it begins to shrink. And as it shrinks, all its atoms are crushed together into a smaller and smaller area.

Then, even the particles that make up the atoms are squashed together too. The result is a small, very heavy ball of atoms called a neutron star.

A neutron star with the same number of atoms as the sun may be less than five miles across! A thimbleful of this star would weigh 74 billion tons.

Even a piece of a neutron star no bigger than your fingernail would weigh 2,000,000,000,000 pounds!

Related Facts

  • Top 25 Inventions That Changed the World
  • What Is a Googol?
  • How did engineers lay the first transatlantic telegraph cable and When?
  • How do astronomers know how far away stars and galaxies are from earth?
  • How Can Radiocarbon Dating Tell Us How Old Anything Is?
  • Who Invented the First Car and Where Did Cars Come From?

Filed Under: Universe

About Karen Hill

Karen Hill is a freelance writer, editor, and columnist. Born in New York, her work has appeared in the Examiner, Yahoo News, Buzzfeed, among others.

Previous Post: « Why Can’t We See a Black Hole?
Next Post: Are All Stars Very Big? »

Footer

Follow

  • Facebook
  • Flickr
  • GitHub
  • Google+
  • Instagram
  • LinkedIn
  • Medium
  • Pinterest
  • StumbleUpon
  • Tumblr
  • Twitter
  • YouTube

Categories

Accomplishments Animals Culture Firsts Food Geography Health History Inventions Language Mythology Odds People Religion Science Space Universe World Your Body

About

Zippy Facts empowers the world by serving educational content that is accessible to everyone.

A tribute to growing up, zippyfacts.com showcases interesting and unusual facts about the world.

Our mission is to use technology to facilitate knowledge transfer and sharing.

Copyright © 2020 Zippy Facts

  • About Us
  • Contact
  • Privacy Policy