Because neutrons are what you get when an electron and a proton love each other very very much…
What occurs to me now that you put it that way, is from way back during the very early days of galactic formation, when so much hydrogen gas got blasted by radiation (was that caused by Population I stars?), stripping the electron away and leaving most of the hydrogen ionized - a fancy way of saying “lone protons floating in space”.
Now what would happen if some ionized hydrogen clouds happened to collapse into massive stars during this window of time, before the universe became re-ionized? Massive stars with mostly protons and very few electrons?
Is this a valid hypothetical object? Then if it collapses under it’s own proton weight, where are you going to get the electrons to merge with the protons to transform into neutrons?
What occurs to me now that you put it that way, is from way back during the very early days of galactic formation, when so much hydrogen gas got blasted by radiation (was that caused by Population I stars?), stripping the electron away and leaving most of the hydrogen ionized - a fancy way of saying “lone protons floating in space”.
Now what would happen if some ionized hydrogen clouds happened to collapse into massive stars during this window of time, before the universe became re-ionized? Massive stars with mostly protons and very few electrons?
Is this a valid hypothetical object? Then if it collapses under it’s own proton weight, where are you going to get the electrons to merge with the protons to transform into neutrons?