J0hn-D0 t1_jee7nla wrote on March 31, 2023 at 11:30 AM

I’m nog smart enough for this but I like to philosophize about it. According to the conservation of energy law total energy of an isolated system remains constant. An example is when rotating on an office chair, speed changes when you stretch or pull your limbs together. So what happens to a rotating star when it decreases in size? Would it start spinning faster and could that cause this effect when exploding when it spins extremely fast?

Abuses-Commas t1_jefczss wrote on March 31, 2023 at 4:34 PM

That's exactly why pulsars spin so fast

Jesse-359 t1_jeh0upe wrote on March 31, 2023 at 11:23 PM

A star that collapses does in fact retain its angular momentum, so yes, neutron stars spin very fast (pulsars) and black holes are expected to spin at something very close to the speed of light, at least when they initially form - they should gradually dissipate some of that energy as gravity waves over time.