What would a neutron star look like?

[Fanghur]

I recently watched a Discovery Channel documentary called 'Evacuate Earth' in which a neutron star is discovered to be on a collision course with Earth and we have to build a massive star ship to escape destruction. Anyway, in the documentary the neutron star is depicted as one might expect with the media, as a red-coloured star with a eerie-looking aura surrounding it.

 

That got me wondering though, do we have any idea what a neutron star would actually look like? Would it emit light or would it be completely dark?

[ACG52]

First of all, it would be really small. I would imagine that would not radiate in the visible spectrum, unless material impacts on the star.

[John Cuthber]

According to WIKI they are white

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neutron_star#Properties

[Airbrush]

I'd imagine it would look like the smoothest perfect sphere you have ever seen. I wonder what it would look like crashing thru our atmosphere at 500 miles per second? The atmosphere would not slow it down at all. Sparks would really fly as it punched thru the atmosphere in less than a second. How would the Earth react to it? Very frightening idea. the biggest asteroid impact would pale in comparison.

[StringJunky]

I'd imagine it would look like the smoothest perfect sphere you have ever seen. I wonder what it would look like crashing thru our atmosphere at 500 miles per second? The atmosphere would not slow it down at all. Sparks would really fly as it punched thru the atmosphere in less than a second. How would the Earth react to it? Very frightening idea. the biggest asteroid impact would pale in comparison.

 

A sugar cube of it apparently weighs 100 million tonnes so we'd be very deep in the mire if a full one hit the Earth. at 500 miles per second.