Exotic star

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An exotic star is a compact star composed of something other than electrons, protons, and neutrons, balanced against gravitational collapse by degeneracy pressure. These include strange stars (composed of strange matter) and preon stars (composed of preons).

Exotic stars are largely theoretical, but observations released by the Chandra X-Ray Observatory on April 10, 2002 detected two candidate strange stars, designated RX J1856.5-3754 and 3C58, which had previously been thought to be neutron stars. Based on the known laws of physics, the former appeared much smaller and the latter much colder than they should, suggesting that they are composed of material denser than neutronium. However, these observations have been under attack by researchers who say the results were not conclusive.