Basic Information
A quark star is a hypothetical celestial body exotic star made of degenerate matter comprised mostly or entirely of quarks. This is one step more extreme than a neutron star, and if quark stars exist they are likely to created by an extra-dense neutron star that has not yet collapsed into a black hole. Currently, we have no method by which to test or tell the difference between a neutron star and a quark star. They are likely to be small, super-dense, not as hot as other stars, and possibly composed of a new state of matter. Wikipedia says: "It is expected to behave as a Fermi liquid and enter a so-called color-flavor-locked (CFL) phase of color superconductivity, where "color" refers to the six "charges" exhibited in the strong interaction, instead of the positive and the negative charges in electromagnetism." This arcanist is not qualified to try to explain what that means today.
I do know that if the quarks in question are strange quarks, then you have a strange star made of strange matter. Strange matter is potentially the most dangerous matter in the universe, because of its "contagious" conversion of normal matter into strange matter.
Sources
Game and Story Use
- May fill the same sort of interstellar terrain role as any neutron star. See that page for ideas.
- Check out strange star and strange matter for additional hazards and concerns.