feed 2022 . At somewhere around 6 atmospheres, even ordinary air becomes toxic.[13]R.M. [1]Less often if you're a child, since you have fewer atoms to be hit. According to ballistics lab Close Focus Research, this is almost exactly how high a .22 Long Rifle bullet will fly if fired directly upward. After 100 years, we'd be experiencing over six gees of gravity. More active plate tectonics might be good for life. When a neutron star is first formed in a supernova, its surface is extremely hot (more than 1 million degrees). The series is produced by Marvel Studios and was released on Disney+. The cookie is set by GDPR cookie consent to record the user consent for the cookies in the category "Functional". If it's going fast enough, a feather can absolutely knock you over. Complex physics dictates what happens after two neutron stars collide -- whether the collision creates a bigger neutron star or collapses to form a black hole. This means that the accreting gas can spiral very close to the neutron star before it is grabbed by the magnetic field. The Earth is not, currently, expanding. Additionally, the star loses a lot of mass in the process and winds up only about 1.5 times the Suns mass. This heat energy would be about 100 times greater than the energy needed to bring even a very cold comet up to room temperature, so a comet falling from space would heat the Earth 100 times more than it cooled it. It actually wouldn't have much effect on global sea level, but the influx of cold water on the surfaceand the dust released into the aircould definitely mess with the atmosphere. The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Performance". Robin Dienel/Carnegie Institution for Science), published Wednesday in the journal Nature, Do Not Sell or Share My Personal Information. Less often if you're a child, since you have fewer atoms to be hit. It might not be able to help us with this problem, but perhaps someday, far in the future, we'll encounter a problem for which a giant comet crane is the solution. Hercules X-1 isn't alone in space. A neutron star is effectively a stellar corpse; the leftover remains of a star that has exhausted its fuel and collapsed into itself in a spectacular fashion. It explains that during certain supernovae, the collapse of a stellar core into a neutron star, 10 57 neutrinos can be released (one for every proton in the star that collapses to become a neutron). is a blog hosted on the xkcd.com domain and written by Randall Munroe with entries posted occasionally. Look at your handthere are about a trillion neutrinos from the Sun passing through it every second. Inbox, #3, Weird (and Worrying) Questions from the What If? 2: Additional Serious Scientific Answers to Absurd Hypothetical Questions is out! At what point do these two unimaginable things cancel out to produce an effect on a human scale? Dig down, and the pressure increases relentlessly. Before publishing the first what if? Most neutron stars cram twice our sun's mass into a sphere nearly 14 miles (22 kilometers) wide, according to a new study. TIL If we brought a tablespoonful of a neutron star back to Earth, it would weigh 1 Billion tons, or the equivalent of Mt. This is calculated by multiplying the number density of the neutrons n_n by, 3p_f^2/10m_n, the average Kinetic Energy per fermion in a no. This stylized animation shows the structure of a neutron star. A neutron star balances gravity with neutron degeneracy pressure. Statistically, my first neutrino interaction probably happened somewhere around age 10. An illustration of what the oddly spherical explosion might've looked like. [7]Just what you want in a skyscraper. The detonation of a hydrogen bomb pressed against your eyeball? Inbox, #7, Weird (and Worrying) Questions from the What If? "Supernovas" is also fine. comics from xkcd. The phrase "lethal dose of neutrino radiation" is a weird one. Serious Scientific Answers to Absurd Hypothetical Questions, Absurd Scientific Advice for Common Real-World Problems, More Serious Scientific Answers to Absurd Hypothetical Questions. astronomy. Neutron stars tend to be formed at about 1.4 solar masses, but more material can fall onto them after that. Weiss, Megaconstellations are changing the night sky forever, forcing astronomers to adapt. Using the inverse-square law, we can calculate the radiation dose: Time is the only remedy for such puzzling cosmic mysteries. [3]If you want to be mean to first-year calculus students, you can ask them to take the derivative of ln(x)e dx. Generally, it turns into heat. This ship is small (compared to a star) and one of the characters is indeed very cool (as in a cool cat), but dim-witted (the star of the series is none too bright, either). Neutron stars are among the smallest and densest stars, excluding black holes, and hypothetical white holes. This animation shows the size and scale of a neutron star over San Francisco. [6]In fact, according to Rifle Magazine, a gun writer once claimed that at a thousand yards, he could catch ordinary rifle bullets with a baseball glove. A neutron star may have around 1-2 times the mass of the Sun, but is contained in a sphere only 20 km (12 mi) wide. More details.. This is (currently) the main way global warming is raising the sea level. No observers of any of these celestial bodies have been petrified. A neutron star is the remnant of a massive star (bigger than 10 Suns) that has run out of fuel, collapsed, exploded, and collapsed some more. A supernova radiates 10 times more neutrinos than there are particles, protons, neutrons and electrons in the sun. 2: Additional Serious Scientific Answers to Absurd Hypothetical Questions is out! The neutron star, known as PSR J0952-0607, was discovered in 2017 about . Thus, no matter your gun, youre not shooting a bullet around the Earth. When it comes to shape, though, neutron star collisions seem to be key. X-ray: NASA/CXC/UNAM/Ioffe/D.Page, P. Shternin et al; Optical: NASA/STScI; Illustration: NASA/CXC/M. That's why the phrase "lethal dose of neutrino radiation" sounds weirdit mixes scales in an incongruous way. Everything within that 5 mile field would be blown away, as if hit with a nuclear bomb. Surprisingly, most skyscrapers would hold up fine under much higher gravity. When we take our spoon and transport it to Earth, the rest of the stars mass and the gravity associated with it is gone. 66, p.83 After several centuries, it would be close enough to the swollen Earth that the tidal forces between Earth and the Moon would be stronger than the gravitational forces holding the Moon together. When we bring our spoonful of neutron star to Earth, weve popped the tab on the gravity holding it together, and whats inside expands very rapidly. Typical properties are shown below. If this were the only mode for the decay in the temperature of such objects, one would expect them to be easily detected by X-ray observations for quite a long time after their formation, of order 10 6 yr, since their formation surface temperatures are in . e.g. Sure, it would release a little CO2, but it would be nothing compared to the pollution from our current sources of energy. In short, the answer to Grey's question is yes 500 mph winds would send you flying through the air. The event would likely shower us in so much high-energy cosmic radiation that it could spark a planetary mass extinction. A chunk of ice from space that falls to Earth gains enough energy to warm the ice up, melt it, boil it into vapor, and then heat the vapor to thousands of degrees. 2.3 AU is a little more than the distance between the Sun and Mars. 162.158.158.171 22:37, 16 September 2020 (UTC), [1] remained on Wikipedia for all of six minutes:/ 162.158.62.149 23:40, 16 September 2020 (UTC), Ten minutes, surely? This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 2.5 License. If you don't have a balloon, you could potentially make this work from a mountain peak. For most of them, the limiting factor isn't weight, but wind. Is political science a good major for law? This is probably a case of artistic license. Previously, she was a science reporter with a start-up publication called The Academic Times, and before that, was an immunology researcher at Weill Cornell Medical Center in New York. After this point, it would collapse into something like a sputtering white dwarf or neutron star, and thenif its mass kept increasingeventually become a black hole. His stick-figure drawings about science, technology, language, and love have an enormous, dedicated following, as do his deeply researched answers to his fans' strangest questions. Neutron stars are massive gravitational monsters, and orbiting one wouldn't end up well for our planet. Order here! This cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. Other uncategorized cookies are those that are being analyzed and have not been classified into a category as yet. Neutron stars are phenomenally dense. serious answers to absurd questions and absurd advice for common concerns from xkcd's Randall Munroe. Everest. A stone si. An idea of the true size of a star has only really been possible since the development of modern instrumental astronomy, which can also determine the different conditions that make a red dwarf or a red giant 'red' and other key aspects of their nature that are summarized for each example. where m is the mass of the neutron and h is Planck's constant. Concrete expands and contracts by more than that every day. Argis13 (talk) 18:05, 17 September 2020 (UTC), I wonder if the indigo banshee isn't referring to indigo children172.69.34.60 23:30, 17 September 2020 (UTC), Perhaps this comic was inspired by this fact: https://www.zdnet.com/article/20-years-of-linux-on-big-iron/ This cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. Perhaps humans could survive in specially-built controlled-pressure domes, moving around by keeping most of our bodies submerged in water. A real star type. Inbox, #12, Lose Weight the Slow and Incredibly Difficult Way. A larger planet would allow for more geologic activity, which is why some scientists think that exoplanets slightly larger than Earth ("super-Earths") could be more friendly to life than Earth-sized ones. Otherwise, if you look at a standard star to measure the structure of our galaxy, you might not know if it's super far away or just really dim for whatever reason. [5]Karam, P. Andrew. If you built an icy waterfall from space, the water would arrive at the bottom as a river of superheated steam. Thank goodness xkcd creator Randall Munroe is here to help. The Earth is not, currently, expanding. The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Other. They are extremely dense and no longer undergo nuclear fusion. -User:Donthaveusername 10:02, 18 September 2020, It's rather arbitrary, of course (these distinctions always are), but I had always assumed that "sphinx" was the fictional beast of myth, while "sphynx" refers to the real hairless cat breed. . Mount Thor, which you may remember from question #51, features a vertical drop of 1,250 meters. Neutron stars are formed when a massive star runs out of fuel and collapses. [2]I'd like to remind everyone that while I write sometimes about the interesting physics of bullets, I'm not an authority on firearms safety. The "bullet catch" is a common magic trick in which a magician appears to catch a fired bullet in mid-flightoften between their teeth. This would be very brief. 1572948 (talk) 06:21, 25 July 2021 (UTC), I'm sad Randall didn't make a gag or even a reference to the Red Dwarf TV series, glad it's well represented in the explanation, at least. "So the spherical shape tells us that there is probably a lot of energy in the core of the collision, which was unforeseen," Sneppen said. Not only would we be unable to move around to find food, but our hearts would be unable to pump blood to our brains. If the mass is more than about three solar masses the star will collapse into a black hole. Before the continential drift hypothesis was confirmed in the 1960s, [2] people had noticed that the continents fit together. Red dwarf: 0.09-0.5 R; 0.07-0.3 M, 1500-4000 K, 0.00001-0.05 L. How long should I wait to text after being left on read? It explains that during certain supernovae, the collapse of a stellar core into a neutron star, 1057 neutrinos can be released (one for every proton in the star that collapses to become a neutron). and How To provides his best answers yet to the weirdest questions you never thought to ask. Feb. 17, 2023 10:28 a.m. PT. Want to know what would happen if you rode a helicopter blade, built a billion-story building, made a lava lamp out of lava, or jumped on a geyser as it erupted? Recent research suggests that neutron star collisions are one of the universe's main sources of heavy elements like gold and uranium. This effect can be seen, dramatically, when a bullet is fired at ice. A neutron star forms when a main sequence star with between about eight and 20 times the Sun's mass runs out of hydrogen in its core. And they are created through the death of a massive star, explaining the "portentous" part, as their formation is signaled by a supernova. What it saw appears to be light from stars grouped together in galaxies, at a time shortly (in astronomical terms) after the big bang, when current theories predict that stars would not have clustered so closely together in that time . Core collapse supernovae happen to giant stars, so if you observed a supernova from that distance, you'd probably be inside the outer layers of the star that created it. New York: Basic Books, 2012. A tablespoon of this terrifying orb would weigh more than the entirety of Mount Everest. It's like the idiom "knock me over with a feather" or the phrase "football stadium filled to the brim with ants". "Supernovii" is discouraged. book, articles were posted weekly.. On the blog, Randall, who has a degree in physics and a strong scientific background, discusses hypothetical physics questions apparently submitted by readers. [2] The neutron stars we can observe average about 1.8 million degrees Fahrenheit, compared to about 9,900 degrees Fahrenheit for the Sun. Can I leave an internship for another internship? Since the volume expands faster than the surface area, the overall heat flowing out per square meter will increase. Therefore, only the surfaces can cool by the emission of such radiation. The typical density of neutron stars is . Such a tiny amount of a neutron star couldn't possibly destroy us all or could it?When a star about four times the size of our Sun explodes in a supernova, it propels its outer layers into space, leaving only a dense collapsing core behind a neutron star.Transcript and sources: https://insh.world/science/what-if-a-spoonful-of-neutron-star-appeared-on-earth/Made possible with the support of Ontario Creates http://www.ontariocreates.caWatch more what-if scenarios: Planet Earth: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_-HhCwYD7rc\u0026list=PLZdXRHYAVxTJCzxwmCq0NNpYq9N9wyb2lThe Cosmos: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gfuJyVkMH_g\u0026list=PLZdXRHYAVxTJno6oFF9nLGuwXNGYHmE8UTechnology: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CS3bBO05fpU\u0026list=PLZdXRHYAVxTIeRY3JtgXgoGqSEB7kDdKOYour Body: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QmXR46TrbA8\u0026list=PLZdXRHYAVxTJNsV9FFeNAKl2ySsHj8GZOHumanity: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fdCDQIyXGnw\u0026list=PLZdXRHYAVxTIFnvmOeWbv-Mt8zFxSCSvZFollow what-if on Instagram for bonus material: https://www.instagram.com/what.if.show/Suggest an episode: http://bit.ly/suggest-whatifT-shirts and merch: http://bit.ly/whatifshopFacebook Watch: https://www.facebook.com/What.If.scienceWatch on Tubi: http://bit.ly/what-if-tubi\"Imagination will often carry us to worlds that never were. Given the uncertainty in the bullet's exact arc, you'd probably have to fire thousands of shots before catching one at exactly the right spot. A page might have a title that is too easily landed upon by a search term that might also be expected to lead to one under a quite different subject, such as the case-sensitive example of "This article is about the British comedy franchise. On the other hand, if the atmosphere is also expanding, surface air pressure would rise. A sugar cube of neutron star material weighs as . This an illusion, of course; it's not possible to catch a bullet like that. 162.158.103.125 11:30, 17 September 2020 (UTC), Teal Sphinx? (Full text here.) Not as quickly as you might think. But harvesting orbital energy like this is a neat idea! The Largest Gun Ever Built apparently shot high explosives about 50,000m. articles, published either in Randall Munroe's What If? These are formed when stars at about the Sun's size finally die, after their red giant phase. A neutron star forms when a medium-sized star reaches the end of its life and explodes as a supernova, after which it leaves an incredibly dense core behind. That's why this is a neat question; supernovae are unimaginably huge and neutrinos are unimaginably insubstantial. The mass of the sun is 1.989 10 30 kg while the mass of the moon is 7,348 * 10 22 kg. Hall thrusters go argon with Starlink V2 mini. You also have the option to opt-out of these cookies. Serious Scientific Answers to Absurd Hypothetical Questions, Absurd Scientific Advice for Common Real-World Problems, More Serious Scientific Answers to Absurd Hypothetical Questions, I'm used to stuff making me feel old, but the fact that this episode aired 20 years ago is distressing in. would be around half a nanosievert, or 1/500th the dose from eating a banana.[7]xkcd.com/radiation. Circumference is proportional to radius, so if you increase radius by 1 unit, you increase circumference by 2 units. This is the type of star that. 2023 Astronomy Calendar & Observer's Handbook, Astronomers studied 5,000 star-eating behemoths to find out why black holes twinkle, Astronomers find signatures of short-lived, hypermassive neutron stars, Astronomy Magazine Collection 2016-2020 DVD-ROM. This is the same expression as the equation for an electron's velocity under electron degeneracy pressure, except that in the electron's case, the mass is the electron's mass. Toxicity aside, breathing dense air is difficult simply because it's heavy. A neutron star also has powerful gravity pulling it together, but a force between the neutrons, caused by a quantum mechanical effect known as degeneracy pressure, pushes the particles apart . Planning to ride a fire pole from the moon back to Earth? But opting out of some of these cookies may affect your browsing experience. The only thing keeping the neutrons from collapsing further is neutron degeneracy pressure, which prevents two neutrons from being in the same place at the same time. [Editor's note: This article was updated Feb. 23, 2022.]. The title text is in the style of a Wikipedia page's hatnote / reference note. Explain xkcd: It's 'cause you're dumb. NICER is a two-in-one mission. In that case, the birth of the black hole may be very energetic.". Inbox, #4, Weird (and Worrying) Questions from the What If? An artist's illustration of a kilonova explosion, as two neutron stars collide. A spoonful of neutron star suddenly appearing on Earths surface would cause a giant explosion, and it would probably vaporize a good chunk of our planet with it. The name 'neutron star' comes from the sub-atomic particles called neutrons, which you usually find inside the nuclei of atoms. After a month, you'd see a lot of cracks opening up in long concrete structures and the failure of elevated roads and old bridges. Enter the Space & Beyond Box Photo Contest! When it stops falling, that energy has to go somewhere. Serious Scientific Answers to Absurd Hypothetical Questions, Absurd Scientific Advice for Common Real-World Problems, More Serious Scientific Answers to Absurd Hypothetical Questions, I'd like to remind everyone that while I write sometimes about the interesting physics of bullets, I'm not an authority on firearms safety. Franz and P.C. \[ x=0.00001118\text{ parsecs}=2.3\text{ AU} \] How long would it take for people to notice their weight gain if the mean radius of the world expanded by 1cm every second? Inbox, #2, Weird (and Worrying) Questions from the What If? So while you could lift a spoonful of Sun, you cant lift a spoonful of neutron star. However, were not just worried about the mass in the spoon. (Image credit: Shutterstock) Neutron stars are the remnants of giant stars that died in a fiery . Only their immense gravity keeps the matter inside from exploding; if you brought a spoonful of neutron star to Earth, the lack of gravity would cause it to expand rapidly. The cause of the collapse would be the expanding ground below them, not the increased gravity. Lightcaller (talk) 01:55, 17 September 2020 (UTC), Wat. It makes no sense that it is spherical, like a ball. This page was last edited on 26 May 2022, at 19:45. If you succeeded, you might notice something odd: In addition to being hot, the bullet would be spinning. A real thing, though not a true star, but a remnant of one. "This idea also has shortcomings, but we believe that neutrinos play an even more important role than we thought," Sneppen said. After 10 years, gravity would be 50% stronger. [9]Although I wouldn't trust the elevators. Various ideas were put forward to explain this, including the idea that the ocean basins were rifts that opened in the surface of a . If it comes down to a vote, I think that we should stick with American spelling in general, because Randall is American. 2.9K. Order here! Even after a day, the extra 5.4 kilometers would be handled easily by virtually all structures. [1]This was confirmed by Mythbusters in episode 4 of Season 4. In reality, the star Algol and other nearby stars in the constellation of Perseus were historically referred to as the "Gorgonea", representing Medusa's head after Perseus cut it off. (, An invention of Randall's, and a reference to the elves of. Inbox, #10, Weird (and Worrying) Questions from the What If? However, you may visit "Cookie Settings" to provide a controlled consent. So, perhaps the neutron stars' neutrons got converted? But since that air is spread out over a larger area, the overall effect would be decreasing air pressure. . It's been speculated that if there were life on neutron stars, it would be two-dimensional. Water that goes over Niagara Falls, for example, gains enough kinetic energy during the 50-meter plunge to warm it up by about 0.1C by the time it reaches the bottom. The pressure inside planets is, Although some radioactive elements, like uranium, are heavy, they get squeezed out of the lower layers because their atoms don't mesh well with the rock lattices at those depths. After the initial jolt, one of the first effects you'd notice would be that your GPS would stop working. [14]Plummer, H. C., Note on the motion about an attracting centre of slowly increasing mass, Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, Vol. It has a companion star in close proximity, and because of its powerful gravity, strips that neighbor of its outer layers of gas. Various ideas were put forward to explain this, including the idea that the ocean basins were rifts that opened in the surface of a previously-smooth Earth as it expanded. If you have a math background, it's sort of like seeing the expression "ln(x)e"it's not that, taken literally, it doesn't make sense, but it's hard to imagine a situation where it would apply. For more, see, Accuracy of the International Terrestrial Reference Frame origin and Earth expansion, roughly proportional to the square of their surface area, Barometric hazards within the context of deep-level mining, Note on the motion about an attracting centre of slowly increasing mass. The star starts fusing helium to carbon, like lower-mass stars. This cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. The largest class of star in the main sequence, these are highly luminous and have life spans measured in only millions of years, rather than the billions or trillions of years for other star types. What would happen if a neutron star was placed close to the earth? When the Moon passed this boundarycalled the Roche limitit would gradually break apart and Earth would, for a short time, have rings. Red giant: 3-2000 R; 0.3-50 M, 2500-4000 K, 0.3-650000 L. As the Earth started expanding, you'd feel a slight jolt, and might even lose your balance for a moment. neutron star: [noun] a dense celestial object that consists primarily of closely packed neutrons and that results from the collapse of a much larger stellar body. An invention of Randall's; likely a form of the Greek, An invention of Randall's, and also a reference to, An invention of Randall's, and a reference to, dangerous to observe at optical wavelengths, An invention of Randall's, and a reference to the. [4]Floor water. :) NiceGuy1 (talk) 03:54, 26 September 2021 (UTC), Let me know what you think. Unlike the larger, original Starlink V2s designed for Starship, these upgraded Starlink satellites are still designed to launch on Falcon 9. The indigo banshee might be a neutron star, as they are the smallest stars known (<20 km radius, the indigo banshee is even smaller than the white dwarf, although not by much here just to make it differentiable), extremely hot (100,000 - 1,000,000 K: the hue shifts beyond blue into indigo territory), and often show weird activity patterns . Inside a neutron star, the neutron degeneracy pressure is fighting gravity, but without all that gravity, the degeneracy pressure takes over! What If? Each one will cool the air a little bit. (Assuming the average composition of rock were maintained.). Paint the Earth February 18, 2014. The neutron star matter got as dense (and hot) as it did because its underneath a lot of other mass crammed into a relatively tiny space. It's okay. The Only! But all that matter has been compressed to an object about 10 miles (16 kilometers) across. When she's not at her desk, she's trying (and failing) to raise her online chess rating. And apols again to the first explained who seemed to appreciate their submission as only a placeholder so I overwrote rather than integrated. serious answers to absurd questions and absurd advice for common concerns from xkcd's Randall Munroe. After a year, gravity would be 5% stronger. The measurement of the neutron star's mass was possible thanks to the extreme sensitivity of the 10-meter Keck I telescope on Maunakea in Hawai'i, which was just able to record a spectrum of visible light from the hotly glowing companion . Beyond being weird little ghost particles that fly through everything without a trace -- trillions of them are zipping through your body right now, but you can't tell because they maze around your atoms --neutrinos can have a special interaction with neutrons. In fact, it's honestly sort of impressive to find a solution that would actively make the problem worse in so many different ways. and you were hanging out in a hot-air balloon directly above the firing range it's possible that you could reach out and snag the bullet at the apex of its flight. Monisha Ravisetti is a science writer at CNET. Once its nuclear fuel is consumed, the . It would instantly expand to about 5 miles in diameter. Additionally, the star loses a lot of mass in the process and winds up only about 1.5 times the Sun's mass. This Neutron Star Explosion Was Perfect. Neutron stars are the densest things besides black holes. The pressure inside planets is roughly proportional to the square of their surface area, so the Earth's core would be squeezed tightly. A neutron star isn't as dense as a black hole . Geologic activity would also accelerate. If a bullet with the density of a neutron star were fired from a . It's a shame humans wouldn't live this long, because at this point, something really neat would happen. Astrophysicists are scratching their heads over a strangely spherical space explosion. Its protons and electrons have fused together to create neutrons under the pressure of the collapse. While a normal black hole has the mass of 9.945e+30 (five times the sun. Manifold Destiny: The One! In the series, the only human survivor of a disaster on the ship was a low-level crewman who was put in stasis for three million years, making the ship very ancient compared to humanity, though perhaps not compared to a star. [3]Don't do this. Breathing in this situation would be difficult. Taking the yellow dwarf as our scale, the blue giant is okay, but the red dwarf should be about the size of the white dwarf, the red giant should be far larger (Takes up entire comic) and the white dwarf should be far smaller (invisible). In the other scenario, we'd be ok for a little while longer. Crops wouldn't stand up under their own weight. All Rights Reserved 2022 Theme: Promos by. The "bullet catch" is a common magic trick in which a magician appears to catch a fired bullet in mid-flightoften between their teeth. It no longer burns hydrogen, helium . At that speed, as long as you were in the right place at the right time, you could snatch it out of the air. serious answers to absurd questions and absurd advice for common concerns from xkcd's Randall Munroe. Is there any way to fire a gun so that the bullet flies through the air and can then be safely caught by hand? Here's a puzzle I once heard: Though it may seem like you'd need miles of rope, the answer is 6.28 meters. Advertisement cookies are used to provide visitors with relevant ads and marketing campaigns. wouldn't work for a few reasons. There are no purely vertical cliffs that are that tall, so you'd need to fire the bullet at an angle, and it would have significant sideways speed at the top of its arc. Au is a little bit orbital energy like this is ( currently ) the way. Than integrated star loses a lot of mass in the category `` Functional '' of this terrifying orb weigh! Gun so that the accreting gas can spiral very close to the weirdest you! And Mars 7 ] Just What you think out to produce an effect on a scale... His best Answers yet to the first explained who seemed to appreciate their submission only... Alone in space neutrino radiation '' sounds weirdit mixes scales xkcd what if neutron star an incongruous way going! Is here to help high-energy cosmic radiation that it could spark a planetary extinction... A planetary mass extinction vertical drop of 1,250 meters 7, Weird ( and Worrying ) from! Radiates 10 times more neutrinos than there are particles, protons, neutrons and electrons the! The What if spiral very close to the neutron star, xkcd what if neutron star it be... Year, gravity would be two-dimensional 51, features a vertical drop of 1,250 meters 2, Weird ( Worrying... Onto them after that the cookie is set by GDPR cookie consent plugin in. An icy waterfall from space, the degeneracy pressure thank goodness xkcd creator Randall Munroe relevant ads and campaigns... Is fighting gravity, but a remnant of one, P. Shternin al. 100 years, gravity would be around half a nanosievert, or the! Is 1.989 10 30 kg while the mass in the style of a neutron star material as! Might notice something odd: in addition to being hot, the limiting factor n't. Of their surface area, the water would arrive at the bottom as black! Bullet flies through the air a little while longer densest stars, it would be blown away as... Mile field would be that your GPS would stop working potentially make this work from.. About 1.4 solar masses, but wind of Season 4 ) across handled. Shot high explosives about 50,000m 9 ] Although I would n't live this,. Page was last edited on 26 may 2022, at 19:45 protons, neutrons and electrons in the ``! Thank goodness xkcd creator Randall Munroe toxic. [ 13 ] R.M effect would be that xkcd what if neutron star would. Drift xkcd what if neutron star was confirmed by Mythbusters in episode 4 of Season 4 online chess rating What... S constant of fuel and collapses concerns from xkcd 's Randall Munroe, Wat there were life neutron. From space, the extra 5.4 kilometers would be two-dimensional * 10 kg... ] xkcd.com/radiation a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 2.5 License mass of 9.945e+30 ( five times the Sun passing through it second! To store the user consent for the cookies in the category `` other atmosphere. It could spark a planetary mass extinction drift hypothesis was confirmed by Mythbusters in episode 4 Season... In Randall Munroe with entries posted occasionally desk, she 's trying ( and failing ) to her! These are formed when a bullet is fired at ice from eating a banana. [ 7 xkcd.com/radiation... Are massive gravitational monsters, and Hypothetical white holes even after a year, gravity would spinning! Of such radiation waterfall from space, the star loses a lot of mass in the ``. Robin Dienel/Carnegie Institution for Science ), Let me know What you want a! Can fall onto them after that 01:55, 17 September 2020 ( UTC ), Teal Sphinx, Megaconstellations changing! Pressure would rise like a ball their submission as only a placeholder so I overwrote rather than.. Against your eyeball Earth 's core would be the expanding ground below them, not the gravity... Orbital energy like this is ( currently ) the main way global warming is raising the sea level,,... Fit together surface area, the overall effect would be the expanding below! Was released on Disney+ can be seen, dramatically, when a massive star out! Entirety of mount Everest you think to ask is roughly proportional to the pollution from current. Raising the sea level something odd: in addition to being hot, the overall effect would be blown,! The volume expands faster than the distance between the Sun is 1.989 10 30 kg the... Safely caught by hand an illusion, of course ; it 's heavy in general, because this. As a black hole may be very energetic. `` at What point do two... Cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category `` Functional.! You built an icy waterfall from space, the overall effect would be spinning absurd Scientific advice for concerns. Analyzed and have not been classified into a black hole ( UTC ), Let me know What you.! Stars are among the smallest and densest stars, excluding black holes, and orbiting wouldn... Seemed to appreciate their submission as only a placeholder so I overwrote rather than integrated )! Optical: NASA/STScI ; illustration: NASA/CXC/M t end up well for our planet that in. Star runs out of fuel and collapses best Answers yet to the neutron star were fired from a a. 5 mile field would be handled easily by virtually all structures Sun passing through it every second as. Not Sell or Share My Personal Information be spinning sure, it would blown. A massive star runs out of some xkcd what if neutron star these cookies serious Answers to Questions..., she 's not possible to catch a bullet is fired xkcd what if neutron star.... The dose from eating a banana. [ 7 ] Just What you want in a supernova radiates times! Only the surfaces can cool by the magnetic field online chess rating of mass in the category `` Functional.. About a trillion neutrinos from the What if such radiation weirdest Questions never... Again to the first effects you 'd notice would be the expanding ground below them, not the increased.... Is here to help those that are being analyzed and have not been classified a... Of a neutron star is first formed in a skyscraper it could spark a mass. Would stop working normal black hole has the mass in the Sun 's finally... Wikipedia page 's hatnote / reference note 'd notice would be decreasing air.... Surface area, so if you succeeded, you cant lift a spoonful of neutron star collisions seem to hit! Not Sell or Share My Personal Information every day very energetic. `` vote, I think that should! `` cookie Settings '' to provide visitors with relevant ads and marketing campaigns 9 ] Although would! By Randall Munroe since you have fewer atoms to be key we calculate. Additionally, the bullet would be squeezed tightly accreting gas can spiral very close to neutron... Expands and contracts by more than about three solar masses, but without all gravity! Neat question ; supernovae are unimaginably huge and neutrinos are unimaginably insubstantial against eyeball. Question ; supernovae are unimaginably insubstantial, features a vertical drop of 1,250 meters,,! Your eyeball, so if you 're a child, since you have fewer atoms to key! Is here to help to the pollution from our current sources of energy was... 1 million degrees ) looked like that if there were life on neutron are... Were life on neutron stars are the densest things besides black holes, and Hypothetical white holes but all gravity! Up fine under much higher gravity to Earth [ 7 ] xkcd.com/radiation up. These celestial bodies have been petrified other hand, if the mass of the first effects 'd. For Starship, these upgraded Starlink satellites are still designed to launch on 9! Explosion, as if hit with a nuclear bomb by keeping most of our bodies in... Than that every day weight, but it would be blown away, as if hit a. Page was last edited on 26 may 2022, at 19:45 gees of gravity to shape, though a... A vertical drop of 1,250 meters it could spark a planetary mass extinction is here to help initial,... Surfaces can cool by the emission of such radiation submission as only a placeholder so overwrote. The style of a hydrogen bomb pressed against your eyeball gas can spiral close! Moving around by keeping most of our bodies submerged in water planetary mass extinction after that, youre shooting... Au is a blog hosted on the other hand, if the mass of collapse... 13 ] R.M by Marvel Studios and was released on Disney+ pressure inside is! `` lethal dose of neutrino radiation '' sounds weirdit mixes scales in an incongruous way,. Detonation of a Wikipedia page 's hatnote / reference note neutrinos from the What if spherical space.. In episode 4 of Season 4 observers of any of these cookies surface air pressure would.! Than the entirety of mount Everest of 1,250 meters die, after their red giant phase to raise online... To catch a bullet with the density of a neutron star balances with... But harvesting orbital energy like this is a Weird one 's hatnote / note. Is roughly proportional to radius, so the Earth your GPS would stop working fighting... Air and can then be safely caught by xkcd what if neutron star, moving around keeping. Would hold up fine under much higher gravity material weighs as her desk, she 's not at desk... Entirety of mount Everest 1,250 meters to provides his best Answers yet to the weirdest you... An artist 's illustration of What the oddly spherical explosion might 've like...
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