Letizia Vincetti is a second-year PhD candidate in astrophysics at Trinity College Dublin. Her work explores the formation and evolution of compact objects such as neutron stars and black holes, investigating the extreme physical processes that occur during and after stellar collapse. Through her research, she aims to better understand how these exotic remnants shape galaxies and test the limits of fundamental physics.

Massive stars, several times heavier than our Sun, live fast and die dramatically. When their nuclear fuel is exhausted, their cores collapse under gravity, triggering a spectacular supernova explosion that blasts their outer layers into space. What remains is compressed into one of the most extreme objects in the Universe: a black hole or a neutron star.

Black holes are thought to form from stars with initial masses above roughly 20–25 times that of the Sun. Defined by a gravitational field so intense that not even light can escape, they represent the ultimate triumph of gravity. These mysterious objects warp spacetime itself and continue to challenge our understanding of physics.

Stars born with slightly lower masses leave behind neutron stars instead. These remarkable remnants pack a mass comparable to that of the Sun into a sphere roughly the size of a city — about 20 kilometres across, comparable to the diameter of Dublin. A single teaspoon of neutron-star material would weigh billions of tonnes — comparable to the mass of a mountain.

Crushed to extraordinary densities, neutron stars are composed largely of neutrons and exist in a state of matter unlike anything on Earth. Many rotate extremely rapidly and possess magnetic fields trillions of times stronger than Earth’s. Some are observed as pulsars — first discovered by Jocelyn Bell Burnell — emitting beams of radiation that sweep through space like cosmic lighthouses, appearing to us as precise, regular pulses.

Join Letizia for a journey through the life and death of stars as we explore supernovae, black holes, neutron stars, pulsars, and the profound insights these extraordinary objects reveal about our Universe.

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