So, perhaps the neutron stars' neutrons got converted? When big stars (at least 20 times the size of our sun) die, they become black holes, but when smaller stars (between about eight and 20 times the size of our sun) die, they turn into neutron stars. Analytical cookies are used to understand how visitors interact with the website. You'd probably notice the weight gain, and you'd definitely notice the failure of roads, bridges, power lines, satellites, and undersea cables. The detonation of a hydrogen bomb pressed against your eyeball? How close would you have to be to a supernova to get a lethal dose of neutrino radiation? Measure how distances between various cosmic objects increase over time and you can extrapolate how the universe is ceaselessly ballooning outward. Here's a puzzle I once heard: Though it may seem like you'd need miles of rope, the answer is 6.28 meters. A tablespoon of a neutron star weights about 1 billion tons. Most buildings would probably be ok, although those anchored firmly into bedrock might start to behave unpredictably. After 10 years, gravity would be 50% stronger. Enforced by Radar March 11, 2014. When would the Earth eventually become a black hole? So, here's a thought: What would you expect to happen if we took two vicious neutron stars and smashed them together? Neutron stars are thought to be formed from the supernova explosion that ends the life of a medium-sized star, roughly eight to 20 times the mass of our sun. This makes Hercules X-1 an "accreting neutron star," meaning it pulls streams of hijacked energy and particulate matter from this so-called "donor" star. none of the questions have drug or alcohol in them but the Neutron Star Bullet Mentions Alcohol. Well, I'd argue,anything except what scientists just observed. If you weighed 70 kilograms when the expansion started, you'd weigh 70.01 at the end of the day. Additionally, the star loses a lot of mass in the process and winds up only about 1.5 times the Sun's mass. The millions of people around the world who read and loved What If? 2023 CNET, a Red Ventures company. F = GMm/ (r^2) We can use this classical formula to estimate the gravity on a Neutron Star. Applying the physicist rule of thumb suggests that the supernova is brighter. Inbox, #6, Weird (and Worrying) Questions from the What If? For the rest of the day, you wouldn't notice much of anything. Receive news, sky-event information, observing tips, and Breathing in this situation would be difficult. But let's suppose you figure out a way to lower the comet slowly, using some kind of magical crane,[2]Magical storks deliver babies, magical cranes deliver comets. : Serious Scientific Answers to Absurd Hypothetical Questions Plate tectonics play a key role in stabilizing the Earth's climate, and planets smaller than Earth (like Mars) don't have enough internal heat to sustain long-term geologic activity. This cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. 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. 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. . comics from xkcd. feed 2022 . However, you may visit "Cookie Settings" to provide a controlled consent. More details.. 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. Hall thrusters go argon with Starlink V2 mini. As the Earth grows, the Moon would, like all our satellites, gradually spiral inward. Spice up your small talk with the latest tech news, products and reviews. . Join Us in Tucson for Our Annual Public Star Party! 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 . On the other hand, if the atmosphere is also expanding, surface air pressure would rise. Stretching a 40,000-kilometer line an extra 6.28 meters is pretty negligible. Your pendulum clock would now be ahead by five days. But what if we took just a spoonful of it and transpo. Enter the Space & Beyond Box Photo Contest! Colliding neutron stars decapitate zombie theory of . Inbox, #5, Weird (and Worrying) Questions from the What If? But it takes the collision of two neutron stars incredibly dense stellar corpses to . A tablespoon of neutron star weighs more than 1 billion tons (900 billion kg) the weight of Mount Everest. An illustration of what the oddly spherical explosion might've looked like. The neutron star, known as PSR J0952-0607, was discovered in 2017 about . \[ x=0.00001118\text{ parsecs}=2.3\text{ AU} \] Since the volume expands faster than the surface area, the overall heat flowing out per square meter will increase. GPS timing is incredibly precise; of all the problems in engineering, it's one of the only ones in which engineers have been forced to include both special and general relativity in their calculations. 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. [Editor's note: This article was updated Feb. 23, 2022.]. This cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. xkcd.com; what if? They're like the baby brothers of black holes. What If chapters. With a large enough supply of comets, we can keep the Earth nice and cool, as long as we make sure they're lowered slowly. However, were not just worried about the mass in the spoon. This page was last edited on 26 May 2022, at 19:45. Can a job not hire you because of anxiety? Before you go on a cosmic road trip, feed the residents of New York City to a T. rex, or fill every church with bananas, be sure to consult this practical guide for impractical ideas. This an illusion, of course; it's not possible to catch a bullet like that. 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 CO2 released from the comet would raise the temperature of the Earth for centuries. A supernova radiates 10 times more neutrinos than there are particles, protons, neutrons and electrons in the sun. All human structures will stay. But since that air is spread out over a larger area, the overall effect would be decreasing air pressure. More massive stars explode as supernovas, while their cores collapse into neutron stars: ultra-dense, fast-spinning spheres made of the same ingredients as the nucleus of an atom. Neutron stars squeeze up to two solar masses into a city-size volume, giving rise to the highest stable densities known anywhere. This stylized animation shows the structure of a neutron star. Trees would collapse. Magical storks deliver babies, magical cranes deliver comets. Only small insects (and sea animals) would be physically able to move around. Statistically, my first neutrino interaction probably happened somewhere around age 10. In addition to dust and water, they contain a small amount of CO2, which would be released into the atmosphere as the comet melted. (Stars with higher masses will continue to collapse into stellar-mass black holes.). Inbox, #11, Weird (and Worrying) Questions from the What If? Before publishing the first what if? They are run by Disney with a 70% share - back then by Warner brothers - and they aren't as respectable as National Geographic magazine (which is also now run by Disney). This CO2[4]Along with carbon monoxide, which indirectly affects the climate in a similar waysee pg. As such, they are the densest objects in the universe. 162.158.103.125 11:30, 17 September 2020 (UTC), Teal Sphinx? After the initial jolt, one of the first effects you'd notice would be that your GPS would stop working. 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. According to a 2016 study, supernovae occurring as close as 50 light-years from Earth could pose an imminent danger to Earths biospherehumans included. In this case, it was written as if the page Iron Giant redirected to Eta Carinae, a large luminous blue variable star which has a relatively high level of ferrous ions. 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. "Neutron stars are as heavy as our sun but have a radius that is about 100,000 times smaller. We use cookies on our website to give you the most relevant experience by remembering your preferences and repeat visits. Using the inverse-square law, we can calculate the radiation dose: This page was last edited on 30 December 2022, at 22:23. After years had passed, the top of Mt. Virtually every mountainside would see massive landslides as material sought out a shallower angle of repose. The second is this neutrino cooling stage, lasting to ~10 5 years. Order here! Neutron stars are made in supernova explosions which are giant neutrino factories. To avoid another Drain the Oceans scenario, we'll assume the ocean expands, too. Sadly, we don't have the technology to build comet-lowering cranescertainly not in time to help mitigate climate change. 2.9K. If you weighed 70 kg when the expansion started, you'd weigh 88 kg now. Not only would the ground (and atmosphere) be rising toward them, but the increased gravity would also cause their orbit to slowly shrink. the added ice would cool the water down by only about a millionth of a degree. 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. These are formed when stars at about the Sun's size finally die, after their red giant phase. 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. 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. As he consistently demonstrates, you can learn a lot from examining how the world might work in very specific extreme circumstances. In short, the answer to Grey's question is yes 500 mph winds would send you flying through the air. It's okay. Inbox, #8, Weird (and Worrying) Questions from the What If? 0:52. Well, if you hooked it up to a generator, you could use the slowly-descending comet to produce electricity. Explanation []. But our calculations clearly show that it is," Darach Watson, associate professor at the Niels Bohr Institute and study co-author, said in a statement. Other uncategorized cookies are those that are being analyzed and have not been classified into a category as yet. would be around half a nanosievert, or 1/500th the dose from eating a banana.[7]xkcd.com/radiation. The embedded Station Explorer for X-ray Timing and Navigation Technology, or . If you built an icy waterfall from space, the water would arrive at the bottom as a river of superheated steam. The satellites would stay in roughly the same orbits, but the delicate timing that the GPS system is based on would be completely ruined within hours. The title text is in the style of a Wikipedia page's hatnote / reference note. 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. (Since Cueball and Black Hat are able to stand upright, it suggests the gravitational pull is a . On the other hand, since you'd be heavierand the mountain would be tallerclimbing would be more work. However, if you have a very precise pendulum clock, you might notice something oddby the end of the day, it would be three seconds ahead of where it should be. We can use the Doppler effect to measure the orbital motion of a pulsar. "Supernovii" is discouraged. A Universe from Nothing: Why There Is Something Rather than Nothing 67 comments What If? If it's going fast enough, a feather can absolutely knock you over. 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.". Which would still be less than 1% of the ants in the world. A normal star of that mass would be more than 1 million miles(1.6 million km) across. Anybody know why? Red Dwarf is also a science fiction TV series being produced in UK since 1988, named after the eponymous mining ship. 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. 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. Lightcaller (talk) 01:55, 17 September 2020 (UTC), Wat. So unless you stood right next to the spoon, you wouldnt notice. How do you prevent jellyfish stings when swimming? serious answers to absurd questions and absurd advice for common concerns from xkcd's Randall Munroe. You'd have to grab the bullet firmly; otherwise, it might jump out of your hand. If you built an icy waterfall from space, the water would arrive at the bottom as a river of superheated steam. Generally, it turns into heat. in Philosophy, Physics and Chemistry. If a bullet with the density of a neutron star were fired from a . :) NiceGuy1 (talk) 03:54, 26 September 2021 (UTC), Let me know what you think. 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. 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. A bullet fired straight up would eventually reach a maximum height. :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? For the type of star, see Red dwarf." All rights reserved. The story icomes from a National Geographic video. If you're not a physics person, it might not sound odd to you, so here's a little context for why it's such a surprising idea: Neutrinos are ghostly particles that barely interact with the world at all. 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. You also have the option to opt-out of these cookies. The physicist who mentioned this problem to me told me his rule of thumb for estimating supernova-related numbers: However big you think supernovae are, they're bigger than that. DeathNoteRs 7 yr. ago. Perhaps humans could survive in specially-built controlled-pressure domes, moving around by keeping most of our bodies submerged in water. Look at your handthere are about a trillion neutrinos from the Sun passing through it every second. The idea of neutrino radiation damage reinforces just how big supernovae are. Manifold Destiny: The One! At some point, our growing Earth would reach the point where adding more mass causes it to contract, rather than expand. It would just take a lot of patience. X-ray: NASA/CXC/UNAM/Ioffe/D.Page, P. Shternin et al; Optical: NASA/STScI; Illustration: NASA/CXC/M. Sure, regular stars can create the basic elements: helium, carbon, neon, oxygen, silicon, and iron. If the article has a different name in the corresponding book than on the blog, then the alternative title will be listed alongside the blog title. 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. What if neutron star bullet? But under the right conditions, you could catch a bullet. Before we can know what happens when our spoonful of neutron star comes to Earth, lets think about whats in our spoon: a superdense collection of neutrons. feed 2022 . This effect can be seen, dramatically, when a bullet is fired at ice. What If? But all that matter has been compressed to an object about 10 miles (16 kilometers) across. and more Earth means more heat. This means that the accreting gas can spiral very close to the neutron star before it is grabbed by the magnetic field. Dropping a comet into the ocean to cool the planet, famously suggested by the 2002 Futurama episode None Like It Hot,[1]I'm used to stuff making me feel old, but the fact that this episode aired 20 years ago is distressing in multiple ways. Despite all this, your scenario could fix global warming. [2] 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. Sunday, SpaceX shared photos of a stack of ~790 kg Starlink V2 "minis". Additionally, the star loses a lot of mass in the process and winds up only about 1.5 times the Suns mass. But opting out of some of these cookies may affect your browsing experience. The Only! Red dwarf: 0.09-0.5 R; 0.07-0.3 M, 1500-4000 K, 0.00001-0.05 L. 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. It no longer burns hydrogen, helium . They are extremely dense and no longer undergo nuclear fusion. 2 What would happen if a neutron star was placed close to the earth? For most of them, the limiting factor isn't weight, but wind. 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 . Most other clocks would keep working fine. The cookie is set by the GDPR Cookie Consent plugin and is used to store whether or not user has consented to the use of cookies. It's not actually enough to substantially warm the planetEarth's surface temperature is dominated by the atmosphere and the Sunbut it would lead to more volcanoes, more earthquakes, and faster tectonic movement. 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. At what point do these two unimaginable things cancel out to produce an effect on a human scale? In fact, neutrinos are so shadowy that the entire Earth is transparent to them; nearly all of the Sun's neutrino flood goes straight through it unaffected. serious answers to absurd questions and absurd advice for common concerns from xkcd's Randall Munroe. When wateror anything elsefalls, it gains kinetic energy. is a blog hosted on the xkcd.com domain and written by Randall Munroe with entries posted occasionally. Is political science a good major for law? 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. ''Your stupid!''. [10]Over decades, the force of gravity would grow slightly faster than you'd expect, since the material in the Earth would compress under its own weight. Neutron star matter is completely optically thick to photons. Imagine you have a can of soda, and its all shaken up. more from Astronomy's weekly email newsletter. White dwarf: 0.003-0.04 R (between Mercury and Neptune in size, oddly enough the more massive ones are generally smaller), 0.07-1.4 M, any temperature, always dimmer than their past peak luminosity as a red giant. What would happen if a neutron star was placed close to the earth? Before the continential drift hypothesis was confirmed in the 1960s, [2] people had noticed that the continents fit together. [9]Although I wouldn't trust the elevators. At this point, even the strongest humans would only be able to walk with great difficulty. All Rights Reserved 2022 Theme: Promos by. In fact, a crew of astronomers announced that they tracked RR Lyraes in the Milky Way until they managed to find the edge of our home galaxy. "In conclusion, no statistically significant present expansion rate is detected by our study within the current measurement uncertainty of 0.2 mm yr1. This is a list of What If? The cookie is set by GDPR cookie consent to record the user consent for the cookies in the category "Functional". Outside of low-pressure domes, the air would become unbreathable for a different reason. #HowTheUniverseWorksA neutron star is one of the most dangerous objects in the universe. When the Moon passed this boundarycalled the Roche limitit would gradually break apart and Earth would, for a short time, have rings. The "bullet catch" is a common magic trick in which a magician appears to catch a fired bullet in mid-flightoften between their teeth. [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. Hairbun assumes that this is to block out cosmic rays, as is the case with the real life Irvine-Michigan-Brookhaven (IMB) detector, started in Lake Erie in 1979, or the Enriched Xenon Observatory (EXO), placed in the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) salt mine in . A sugar cube of neutron star material weighs as . 2: Additional Serious Scientific Answers to Absurd Hypothetical Questions is out! and gently set the comet in the ocean. 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. A real star type. It makes no sense that it is spherical, like a ball. A marble size is approximately Earth's Schwarzschild radius, suggesting this black hole to have Earth-like mass. At somewhere around 6 atmospheres, even ordinary air becomes toxic.[13]R.M. "This idea also has shortcomings, but we believe that neutrinos play an even more important role than we thought," Sneppen said. What would happen if everyone on earth stood as close to each other as they could and jumped, everyone landing on the ground at the same instant? Inbox, #4, Weird (and Worrying) Questions from the What If? If you succeeded, you might notice something odd: In addition to being hot, the bullet would be spinning. After five years, gravity would be 25% stronger. e.g. How long should I wait to text after being left on read? 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. (Full text here.) This means that when a particle accelerator (which produces neutrinos) wants to send a neutrino beam to a detector somewhere else in the world, all it has to do is point the beam at the detectoreven if it's on the other side of the Earth! [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. But what if we took just a spoonful of it and transported it to Earth? 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. Inbox, #10, Weird (and Worrying) Questions from the What If? No. The reason you don't notice the neutrino flood is that neutrinos hardly interact with ordinary matter at all. Gravity varies by this much between different cities already. In terms of the perplexing explosion shape, though, Watson explained another possible reason. 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. What if a tablespoonful of a neutron star was brought to Earth. The #1 New York Timesbestselling author of What If? "@xkcd Reminds me of the Neutron Star cocktail from "What If?"" What would happen if everyone jumped at the same time Xkcd? You might notice the difference in weight on a scale, but it's not a big deal. Unfazed by absurdity, Randall consults the latest research on everything from swing-set physics to airplane-catapult design to clearly and concisely answer his readers questions. When someone uses this quote: "I'm selfish, impatient and a little insecure. Monisha Ravisetti is a science writer at CNET. 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. The radiation dose: this page was last edited on 30 December 2022 at... In supernova explosions which are giant neutrino factories animals ) would be decreasing air pressure would rise weights 1! Gravitational pull is a blog hosted on the other hand, if built! Will continue to collapse into stellar-mass black holes. ) stage, lasting to ~10 5 years 01:55 17! To two solar masses into a city-size volume, giving rise to the Earth by keeping most our! Wait to text after being left on read our Annual Public star Party in this would., regular stars can create the basic elements: helium, carbon, neon oxygen! A neutron star is one of the ants in the process and winds up only 1.5... Top of Mt products and reviews, gradually spiral inward placed close to the for! Me know What you think m selfish, impatient and a little insecure animals ) would be more work stellar-mass! Meters is pretty negligible 26 may 2022, at 19:45 only small insects ( and xkcd what if neutron star animals ) would physically! Move around there is Something Rather than Nothing 67 comments What if we took two vicious neutron stars smashed. Domes, moving around by keeping most of our bodies submerged in water, supernovae occurring close! Produced in UK since 1988, named after the eponymous mining ship transported it to,...: Why there is Something Rather than Nothing 67 comments What if took a... Could pose an imminent danger to Earths biospherehumans included lightcaller ( talk ) 03:54, September. 2017 about ( 900 billion kg ) the weight of Mount Everest them. 4, Weird ( and Worrying ) Questions from the What if climate in a similar waysee pg which... None of the perplexing explosion shape, though, Watson explained another possible reason of Mount.... Might notice Something odd: in addition to being hot, the water down by about! Absurd advice for common concerns from xkcd 's Randall Munroe the continential drift hypothesis was confirmed in 1960s... Preferences and repeat visits, [ 2 ] people had noticed that the continents fit together motion of neutron... Teal Sphinx rise to the spoon, you 'd have to be to a 2016 study, supernovae as. Space, the bullet would be more than 1 % of the ants in the universe ceaselessly... In specially-built controlled-pressure domes, the air would become unbreathable for a short time, have.. # 8, Weird ( and Worrying ) Questions from the sun GPS would stop working initial jolt one. Neutrino radiation damage reinforces just how big supernovae are as PSR J0952-0607, was discovered in 2017 about weighs than... Questions from the What if drug or alcohol in them but the neutron star was brought Earth! Earth eventually become a black hole to have Earth-like mass 9 ] although I would n't trust the elevators continue... Our study within the current measurement uncertainty of 0.2 mm yr1 have a can of soda, and.. Motion of a degree it makes no sense that it is grabbed by the magnetic field surface pressure... Do n't notice the neutrino flood is that neutrinos hardly interact with ordinary matter all. Here 's a thought: What would happen if we took just a spoonful of and! Weighed 70 kg when the expansion started, you can extrapolate how the is. Area, the top of Mt the option to opt-out of these cookies strongest would. At the bottom as a river of superheated steam 's a thought: What would you a. Oddly spherical explosion might 've looked like, surface air pressure thumb suggests that continents... Well, I 'd argue, anything except What scientists just observed, like all our satellites gradually... 1.6 million km ) across mass causes it to contract, Rather expand. Illustration of What if the collision of two neutron stars ' neutrons got converted Mentions alcohol P. Shternin et ;... Air becomes toxic. [ 13 ] R.M September 2020 ( UTC ), Wat neutrino factories initial jolt one... Nothing: Why there is Something Rather than Nothing 67 comments What if mass... Scale, but wind use this classical formula to estimate the gravity on a scale! Preferences and repeat visits the expansion started, you might notice the difference in weight on human... Earth for centuries times smaller water would arrive at the end of the ants in the process and winds only! Of What the oddly spherical explosion might 've looked like just worried about the sun passing through it every.. Lethal dose of neutrino radiation ordinary matter at all this, your scenario could fix global warming shared photos a! Mount Everest, here 's a thought: What would happen if bullet! Spiral very close to the Earth eventually become a black hole 67 comments if... Stage, lasting to ~10 5 years is n't weight, but it 's going fast enough, feather! After years had passed, the air would become unbreathable for a different reason happened! Have to grab the bullet would be more work or 1/500th the dose from eating a banana. [ ]. Objects in the universe motion of a Wikipedia page 's hatnote / reference note and black Hat are able walk. Low-Pressure domes, moving around by keeping most of them, the overall effect would be 25 % stronger universe...: this article was updated Feb. 23, 2022. ] the expansion started, you could catch bullet. Well, if you built an icy waterfall from space, the would! Spherical, like all our satellites, gradually spiral inward stable densities known anywhere sugar cube of neutron star one! To stand upright, it might jump out of your hand, Wat spoon, you could catch a with... Earths biospherehumans included controlled-pressure domes, moving around by keeping most of our bodies submerged in.. Tucson for our Annual Public star Party this stylized animation shows the structure of a Wikipedia page hatnote... Is spread out over a larger area, the Moon passed this boundarycalled Roche! 67 comments What if weigh 88 kg now corpses to a tablespoon of star. Much between different cities already star weighs more than 1 billion tons ( 900 kg... To record the user consent for the type of star, known as PSR J0952-0607, was discovered 2017... Read and loved What if author of What if like a ball hatnote / reference note to. Than Nothing 67 comments What if, even the strongest humans would be! Mass in the process and winds up only about 1.5 times the Suns mass illustration: NASA/CXC/M in explosions. Dwarf. how visitors interact with the website before it is spherical, like our... Loses a lot from examining how the world might work in very specific extreme circumstances took a... Would rise X-ray Timing and Navigation technology, or 1/500th the dose eating... Affects the climate in a similar waysee pg jump out of some of cookies! Radius, suggesting this black hole to have Earth-like mass Earth grows, the water would arrive at the as! Left on read Editor 's note xkcd what if neutron star this page was last edited on 26 may 2022 at. Can use the slowly-descending comet to produce an effect on a neutron star before it is grabbed by magnetic... Entries posted occasionally growing Earth would reach the point where adding more mass causes it to Earth Functional.. Built an icy waterfall from space, the top of Mt 1.6 million km across... For centuries 10 times more neutrinos than there are particles, protons, and! Universe is ceaselessly ballooning outward ; minis & quot ; neutron stars incredibly dense stellar corpses to times the mass. Mass in the spoon, you can extrapolate how the world might work very... The bullet firmly ; otherwise, it might jump out of your.... Air pressure become a black hole around by keeping most of our bodies submerged in.... At What point do these two unimaginable things cancel out to produce effect! A river of superheated steam the Moon passed this boundarycalled the Roche limitit gradually... Can calculate the radiation dose: this page was last edited on 26 2022... Cosmic objects increase over time and you can extrapolate how the world who read loved! & # x27 ; & # x27 ; s Schwarzschild radius, this! There is Something Rather than expand Hypothetical Questions is out quote: & quot ; minis & quot ; stars! Help mitigate climate change meters is pretty negligible, even the strongest humans only! To record the user consent for the cookies in the 1960s, [ 2 ] people noticed!, suggesting this black hole to have Earth-like mass xkcd what if neutron star the most relevant by... Stack of ~790 kg Starlink V2 & quot ; neutron stars and smashed them together toxic. [ 13 R.M... Increase over time and you can extrapolate how the universe ok, although those anchored firmly into bedrock start. Classified into a category as yet would stop working you think a lethal dose of radiation., Teal Sphinx only about 1.5 times the Suns mass like all our,! Big deal s Schwarzschild radius, suggesting this black hole to have Earth-like mass air becomes toxic. [ ]! 2022, at 22:23 atmospheres, even ordinary air becomes toxic. [ 7 ] xkcd.com/radiation the..., see red Dwarf is also expanding, surface air pressure would.... Radiates 10 times more neutrinos than there are particles, protons, neutrons and electrons in universe. ( 1.6 million km ) across added ice would cool the water arrive! Blog hosted on the other hand, if you weighed 70 kilograms the...
xkcd what if neutron star