system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
If neutrons only have a half life of 10 minutes, why don't neutron stars just disappear after this time?

I'm currently studying particle physics in my Physics A level and I found out yesterday that neutrons only have a mean half life of around 800 seconds. This made me wonder why neutron stars don't decay after 10 minutes because they are made purely of neutrons. I asked my Physics teacher the same question and he brushed the question off in an "I don't really know" kind of way.
gpt
Free neutrons will have different half lives to bound neutrons, like this in an atom. (Otherwise, all atoms would decay quickly).

A neutron star is basically enough neutrons bound together as if they were an atom to the point that it is the size of a small star. While there is a lot of activity because it is so large, decay is relatively slow within the star.