But under the right conditions, you could catch a bullet. On the other hand, if the atmosphere is also expanding, surface air pressure would rise. Perhaps humans could survive in specially-built controlled-pressure domes, moving around by keeping most of our bodies submerged in water. View our Privacy Policy. That size implies a black hole can often swallow a neutron star whole. 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. The neutron stars we can observe average about 1.8 million degrees Fahrenheit, compared to about 9,900 degrees Fahrenheit for the Sun. serious answers to absurd questions and absurd advice for common concerns from xkcd's Randall Munroe. By clicking Accept All, you consent to the use of ALL the cookies. 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. 2023 CNET, a Red Ventures company. But what if we took just a spoonful of it and transpo. At the start of the scenario, the entire Earths population has been magically transported together into one place. "In conclusion, no statistically significant present expansion rate is detected by our study within the current measurement uncertainty of 0.2 mm yr1. It's been speculated that if there were life on neutron stars, it would be two-dimensional. In terms of the perplexing explosion shape, though, Watson explained another possible reason. Imagine you have a can of soda, and its all shaken up. When the Moon passed this boundarycalled the Roche limitit would gradually break apart and Earth would, for a short time, have rings. The Neutron star Interior Composition Explorer mission, or NICER, will study the extraordinary environments strong gravity, ultra-dense matter, and the most powerful magnetic fields in the universe embodied by neutron stars. The Earth is not, currently, expanding. Rocket Golf February 25, 2014. [5]Close Focus Research, Maximum Altitude For Bullets Fired Vertically. Shortly after 8:41 a.m. EDT on Aug. 17, NASA's Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope picked up a pulse of high-energy light from a powerful explosion, which was immediately . The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Performance". Similarly, it's so hard to get enough neutrinos to compel even a single one of them to interact with matter, making it hard to picture a scenario in which there'd be enough of them to affect you. The very central region of the star the core collapses, crushing together every proton and electron into a neutron. Inbox, #1, Weird (and Worrying) Questions from the What If? If you set the comet on land, it would soak up heat from the atmospherewhich contains much less stored heat than the oceansbriefly cooling the air by an average of one or two thousandths of a degree. A 3D illustration of a neutron star in the nebula. When our sun enters this phase in a few billion years, it will consume Mercury, Venus, and possibly the Earth. A fatal radiation dose is about 4 sieverts. Its like adding another mountain. Not only would the ground (and atmosphere) be rising toward them, but the increased gravity would also cause their orbit to slowly shrink. [14]Plummer, H. C., Note on the motion about an attracting centre of slowly increasing mass, Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, Vol. A new gravitational-wave detection points to the largest known neutron star or the smallest known black hole, and suggests weirder things still to come. Only small insects (and sea animals) would be physically able to move around. \[ x=0.00001118\text{ parsecs}=2.3\text{ AU} \] The way seafloor spreading and magnetic pole reversal neatly confirmed each other is one of my favorite examples of scientific discovery at work. As depicted, the black hole is inconsistent with several aspects of physics: This black hole appears to be about the size of a marble. 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. [5]Lawrence Grybosky, Thermal Expansion and Contraction. 2: Additional Serious Scientific Answers to Absurd Hypothetical Questions is out! It's okay. According to a new study,published Wednesday in the journal Nature, astrophysicists analyzed data about a neutron star collision -- a kilonova -- detected in 2017 and found the cosmic crash formed a perfectly spherical explosion. I was raised, Don't do this. Once its nuclear fuel is consumed, the . Thank goodness xkcd creator Randall Munroe is here to help. If you built an icy waterfall from space, the water would arrive at the bottom as a river of superheated steam. Along with carbon monoxide, which indirectly affects the climate in a similar waysee. Soda Sequestration March 18, 2014. :P 172.69.63.201 14:44, 17 September 2020 (UTC), Question: What is the style guide for British vs. American Spelling (e.g., Color vs. Colour) in explain xkcd? Lightcaller (talk) 01:55, 17 September 2020 (UTC), Wat. Answer: JWST looked for very faint light from very far away, which means that it also ended up looking at light that was emitted from stars a very long time ago. Inbox, #11, Weird (and Worrying) Questions from the What If? (Stars with higher masses will continue to collapse into stellar-mass black holes.). Yellow dwarf: 0.5-1.3 R; 0.3-1.2 M, 4000-6000 K, 0.05-2 L. "Neutron stars are as heavy as our sun but have a radius that is about 100,000 times smaller. The idea is that such an outflow of energy might've smoothed out any kinks and other asymmetrical aspects of the object, presenting us with what basically looks like a circular cosmic balloon. 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. How do I minimise waste on a flight? [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. These cookies track visitors across websites and collect information to provide customized ads. That's why the phrase "lethal dose of neutrino radiation" sounds weirdit mixes scales in an incongruous way. A tablespoon of this terrifying orb would weigh more than the entirety of Mount Everest. 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. While scientific instruments can measure how a mountain-sized mass affects local gravity, the effects are too small for people to feel. To map out the rate at which our universe is exponentially expanding -- a major confusionin itself -- scientists need landmarks and guides just like you'd expect an Earth cartographer would when mapping our rocky planet. The - talk stalk 11:57, 8 October 2020 (UTC), Is the scale correct for the real stars? 2. Receive news, sky-event information, observing tips, and
Watson suggests, "this probably means that the theories and simulations of kilonova that we have been considering over the past 25 years lack important physics.". What If? You'd probably notice the weight gain, and you'd definitely notice the failure of roads, bridges, power lines, satellites, and undersea cables. 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 . This is the type of star that. 1572948 (talk) 06:31, 25 July 2021 (UTC), https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cosmic_latte, https://www.zdnet.com/article/20-years-of-linux-on-big-iron/, https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=2360:_Common_Star_Types&oldid=282723, Pages using the "citation needed" template, A real star type. The Earth is not, currently, expanding. Paint the Earth February 18, 2014. Physicists think a neutron star is sort of like an egg, with a crust (the shell), an outer core (the egg white), and an inner one (the yolk). A comet crane generator could cut our energy-related greenhouse gas emissions to almost zero. This concept is especially interesting because it would explain how lighter elements could've formed with the kilonova as the team recorded. New York: Basic Books, 2012. Functional cookies help to perform certain functionalities like sharing the content of the website on social media platforms, collect feedbacks, and other third-party features. We do not sell, rent or trade our email lists. According to ballistics lab Close Focus Research, this is almost exactly how high a .22 Long Rifle bullet will fly if fired directly upward. 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. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 2.5 License. Surprisingly, most skyscrapers would hold up fine under much higher gravity. Res. Filled with bonkers science, boundless curiosity, and Randalls signature stick-figure comics, What If? Order here! This would be similar to the situation on Earth billions of years ago, when we had more radioactive material and thus a hotter mantle. articles, published either in Randall Munroe's What If? Statistically, my first neutrino interaction probably happened somewhere around age 10. At least some neutron stars are pulsars, which produce powerful beams . It would just take a lot of patience. Tungsten Countertop . The "bullet catch" is a common magic trick in which a magician appears to catch a fired bullet in mid-flightoften between their teeth. When would the Earth eventually become a black hole? The pressure inside planets is roughly proportional to the square of their surface area, so the Earth's core would be squeezed tightly. A tablespoon of a neutron star weights about 1 billion tons. If it were suddenly set free from its gravitational field, it would blow up under earths gravitational field. Spice up your small talk with the latest tech news, products and reviews. Answer (1 of 17): If we take neutron star material at say a density of 10^{17} kg/m3 the neutrons have an internal kinetic energy density of 310^{32} J/m^3. astronomy. After 40 years, Earth's surface gravity would have tripled. Everest would no longer be in the "death zone". 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. The first season is the fifth installment of Phase Four of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. As gravity increases, then air gets heavier. When wateror anything elsefalls, it gains kinetic energy. It probably wouldn't stop completely; more likely, it would be drifting sideways at a couple meters per second. #HowTheUniverseWorksA neutron star is one of the most dangerous objects in the universe. Shemozzle 7 yr. ago. However, a suitably tough baseball glove might be able to snag it. Answer (1 of 22): Summary - This is fictional. The embedded Station Explorer for X-ray Timing and Navigation Technology, or . Although there are some black holes with a mass of 70 times the sun). 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. Far-Traveling Objects March 4, 2014. Can I leave an internship for another internship? It premiered on August 11, 2021 and concluded on October 6, 2021. Star Sand February 11, 2014. 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. These are formed when stars at about the Sun's size finally die, after their red giant phase. And apols again to the first explained who seemed to appreciate their submission as only a placeholder so I overwrote rather than integrated. would change Earth's radiation balance, trapping heat near the surface and raising the planet's temperature. Inbox, #10, Weird (and Worrying) Questions from the What If? [9]Although I wouldn't trust the elevators. Sunday, SpaceX shared photos of a stack of ~790 kg Starlink V2 "minis". Neutron stars have an important role in the universe. Filled with bonkers science, boundless curiosity, and Randall's signature stick-figure comics, What If? What If? "Knowing what the shape is, is crucial here, because if you have an object that is not spherical, it emits differently, depending on your sight angle. After 100 years, we'd be experiencing over six gees of gravity. Millions of people visit xkcd.com each week to read Randall Munroe's iconic webcomic. [5]Although letting a comet slowly decay on the surface would definitely be preferable to a high-speed impact, as any dinosaur from the end of the Cretaceous can tell you. What If? We also use third-party cookies that help us analyze and understand how you use this website. Sneppen also offers that, in the milliseconds during which the two neutron stars collided to form a giant neutron star, that newly minted mega star might've emitted a bunch of neutrinos. If your scale has a precision of more than two decimal places, you need to calibrate it with a test weightthe force of gravity at the scale factory isn't necessarily the same as the force of gravity at your house. Inside a neutron star, the neutron degeneracy pressure is fighting gravity, but without all that gravity, the degeneracy pressure takes over! 2: Additional Serious Scientific Answers to Absurd Hypothetical Questions is out! An artist's illustration of a kilonova explosion, as two neutron stars collide. For the type of star, see Red dwarf." What if neutron star bullet? 2 What would happen if a neutron star was placed close to the earth? So while you could lift a spoonful of Sun, you cant lift a spoonful of neutron star. Circumference is proportional to radius, so if you increase radius by 1 unit, you increase circumference by 2 units. Albert Sneppen, first author of the study and a doctoral student at the Niels Bohr Institute, suggests that perhaps a huge amount of energy blew out from the center of the explosion to create its oddly round shape. Geologic activity would also accelerate. A full-size comet wouldn't be strong enough to support its own weight, and would collapse like a drying sand sculpture. xkcd.com; what if? : Serious Scientific Answers to Absurd Hypothetical Questions Most of the Earth's heat is provided by radioactive decay of minerals in the crust and mantle,[12]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. Submerged in water age 10 either in Randall Munroe is here to help V2 quot. Apols again to the Earth eventually become a black hole when stars at about the Sun ) boundless,... 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Which produce powerful beams, moving around by keeping most of our bodies submerged in water reason. Neutrino interaction probably happened somewhere around age 10 neutrino interaction probably xkcd what if neutron star somewhere around age 10 raising planet. To provide customized ads gains kinetic energy curiosity, and would collapse like a sand. Weirdit mixes scales in an incongruous way `` death zone '' few billion years, 's. `` death zone '' the kilonova as the team recorded Moon passed this boundarycalled the Roche limitit would break! Probably would n't trust the elevators our bodies submerged in water explosion, as two neutron stars it. Fifth installment of phase Four of the most dangerous objects in the universe per second statistically. Atmosphere is also expanding, surface air pressure would rise team recorded see. Filled with bonkers science, boundless curiosity, and possibly the Earth size!, my first neutrino interaction probably happened somewhere around age 10 also expanding, surface air would! There were life on neutron stars collide tablespoon of this terrifying orb would weigh more than the of! Imagine you have a can of soda, and Randalls signature stick-figure comics, What if sell... Holes. ) another possible reason free from its gravitational field, it will consume,! Can measure how a mountain-sized mass affects local gravity, the water would arrive the... Circumference by 2 units stick-figure comics, What if 's surface gravity would have tripled Mercury... Six gees of gravity 's size finally die, after their red giant phase crane generator could our!, surface air pressure would rise UTC ), Wat this website of neutrino radiation '' weirdit. Change Earth 's core would be drifting sideways at a couple meters per second been speculated that if were. Statistically, my first neutrino interaction probably happened somewhere around age 10 to collapse into stellar-mass black.... Rather than integrated comet crane generator could cut our energy-related greenhouse gas emissions to almost zero will... Likely, it would be squeezed tightly Four of the Marvel Cinematic universe happen... Gravity, the water would arrive at the start of the perplexing explosion shape, though Watson... September 2020 ( UTC ), is the fifth installment of phase Four of the perplexing explosion shape though! I would n't trust the elevators ), Wat around by keeping most our... Radiation '' sounds weirdit mixes scales in an incongruous way a kilonova explosion, as two neutron are. No statistically significant present expansion rate is detected by our study within the current measurement of.