Some neutron stars emit radio waves that pulse on and off. These stars are called pulsars. What happens is that the radio waves only escape from the North and South magnetic poles of the neutron star. If the spin axis is tilted with respect to the magnetic poles, the escaping radio waves sweep around like the light beam from a lighthouse. Far away on Earth, radio astronomers pick up the radio waves only when the beam sweeps across the Earth.
Many people think black holes continually suck in everything like great big cosmic bathtub drains.
Our lifetimes are measured in years. Star lifetimes are measured in millions of years. Even though star timescales are enormous, it is possible to know how stars are born, live, and die. If the core mass is between 1.4 and 3 solar masses, the compression from the star's gravity will be so great the protons fuse with the electrons to form neutrons. The core becomes a super-dense ball of neutrons.