Neutron Star Spins 716 Times a Second

I can't help but think about all the energy that represent. Probably enough to drive a generator that could feed the entire world ;O)

When I thought about it more I started to wonder what happens if a star is spinning so fast that it's outside approaches the speed of light and it continues to collapse. Does it add mass since it can't go any faster?

Sorry!!! I don't know much about all that but why could it not go faster than Light ????

Relativity says that nothing can travel faster than the speed of light. One of the reasons that prevent any object with a mass going at or faster than the speed of light is that the mass is not constant - it increases with velocity and it goes to infinity at the speed of light. So what I was suggesting is that maybe a rapidly spinning object that wouldn't ordinarily form a black hole might from this additional relativistic mass, but I don't know if that idea works.

You might want to look up Kerr-Type black holes. The theory also applies to mass intense objects rotating at high speed.

The theory basically states that there is a connection between the mass of a spinning object, the rate of spin, and temporal distortions along the equatorial region above the object.

In the case of the neutron star you mentioned, its high mass and rotation speed may, in effect, create a time machine. The theory is that objects that orbit around a Kerr-Type black hole at its equator experience progression or regression in time depending on the direction of travel around the black hole. Since the black hole is so massive, its rate of spin does not need to be very high. However, for less massive objects, the spin rate needs to be much higher.

This neutron star may qualify for such an effect. The limits of the temporal distortion will/would only extend forward and backward in time that marks the beginning and end of the neutron star's life. In other words, you could only progress forward to a point where the neutron star ceases to exist or spin. Conversely, you can not go backward before the creation of the spinning neutron star.

I was reading a number of years ago of talk of running an experiment where a large object would be spun a extremely high speed. The concept was to take a object of low mass (on a celestial scale) and spin it at a rate that is very, very fast. An electrical signal would be sent in a loop around the equator of the spinning object and it's departure and arrival times compared. The thought was to see if the normal propagation rate can be altered by the effects of the spinning mass.

One of the big hurdles is spinning a large object at fractional relativistic speeds. You can't use a set of Timkin bearings from the hardware store to manage the forces and friction generated by such an object. I suppose that is why this is just the idle chat of theoreticians over a mug of ale at the local pup these days.

The closest thing I have ever experienced to this was when I spun my car on a busy 6-lane rain slicked highway at 60 mph. It seemed to take forever to stop spinning.

I'm not sure about what you just said. It seems more like science fiction than fact to me, but then any Stephen Hawking book seems more like science fiction than fact to me, so what do I know? (baby universes? really? C'mon Hawking). I was more thinking that if Angular Momentum stays constant and the star is collapsing, and speed can't exceed c, so it basically stays constant at a point in the collapse, then the mass of the star has to increase or it's got to emit photons like crazy to slow itself down, I don't know.

Neither am I sure. Seems to me I remember a series of articles on the theory I read in the past; or maybe it will be the future.

I get confused from time to time.

Ha, I know what you mean, or knew what you meant? I'm confused all the time.