Nuclear Pasta: Strongest material in the Universe?

What exactly is Nuclear Pasta?

Nuclear Pasta is a type of degenerate matter that is said to exist on the crusts of neutron stars. Degenerate matter is a highly dense state of fermionic matter, similar to the sixth state of matter: Fermionic condensate. Nuclear pasta could potentially be the strongest material in the universe. Scientists claim it to be the mightiest substance known to humans. It's recorded to be almost 10 billion times stronger than steel. That's insane! However, the ultra-strong nuclear pasta is unstable outside the neutron star and hence has no practical use. It cannot exist outside the crushing pressure of a neutron star. In the crust of a neutron star, there are many ways neutrons are arranged and these structures resemble various types of pasta.

Neutron stars, which are well known, do strange things when exposed to incredible pressures. They are the super dense collapsed cores of stars after a supernova explosion. Inside neutron stars, massive amounts of mass are packed in a small space. The crush of gravity contorts and squeezes neutrons into unusual configurations. (Neutrons are formed when electrons and protons are fused together by phenomenal amounts of force. Most of the time, these electrons and protons are of iron as that is the substance found at the core of stars) Neutron stars have layers characterized by different configurations of neutron matter. 

At the surface, there is the 'gnocchi' phase, which is basically a layer of round bubble-like neutrons. As you go a bit deeper, the pressure forces neutrons into long tubes and this is called the 'spaghetti' phase. Further down, sheets of neutrons are found called 'lasagna'. Much deeper into the inner crust, the 'anti-spaghetti' phase is found where neutrons fuse into each other becoming cylindrical. These layers are not uniformly distributed on the crust of a neutron star. That's why there could be mountains of extra material on the top. When a neutron star spins, which is very fast, raised lumps of nuclear pasta could theoretically create ripples in the surrounding space-time called 'Gravitational waves.'