Gravity Defied (from potato asteroids to magnetised neutron stars) I : The self-gravitating objects

Abstract

Gravitation, the universal attractive force, acts upon all matter (and radiation) relentlessly. Left to itself, gravity would pull everything together and the Universe would be nothing but a gigantic black hole. Nature throws almost every bit of physics - rotation, magnetic field, heat, quantum effects and so on, at gravity to escape such a fate. In this series of articles we shall explore systems where the eternal pull of gravity has been held off by one or another such means.