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\"These city-sized objects are essentially ginormous atomic nuclei. They are so massive that their interiors take on weird properties. Finding the maximum mass that physics and nature will allow can teach us a great deal about this otherwise inaccessible realm in astrophysics,\" Cromartie said in a statement announcing their findings.

Just a sugar-cube sized piece of this neutron star would weigh 100 million tons on Earth, scientists said.

\"PHOTO:
BSaxton, NRAO/AUI/NSF
PHOTO: Artist impression of the pulse from a massive neutron star being delayed by the passage of a white dwarf star between the neutron star and Earth.
>

Cromartie added to ABC News that the discovery of the mass of this star is a big leap forward in understanding these mysterious objects.

\"The main reason finding the most massive neutron star ever discovered is significant is because it helps us understand the physics deep inside their interiors,\" Cromartie told ABC News. \"Neutron stars are the second most massive things in the universe after black holes.\"

\"For a long time we thought that neutron stars could only be around 1.4 times the mass of the sun,\" she added, saying that a few discoveries over the years have challenged this, but the new study \"is a pretty big leap forward in terms of discovering more and more massive neutron stars.\"

\"I think the discovery is very compelling because it shows that we can use astrophysical observations as kind of a laboratory in space to do physics that we can't do on earth,\" she said of the research. \"We can't exactly make neutron stars here on earth so the only way we have access to this astrophysics is by observing these neutron stars.\"

\"I think it's a pretty darn cool tool to have access to,\" she added.

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