Statistically, my first neutrino interaction probably happened somewhere around age 10. The former NASA roboticist, 29, has built a cult following with his stick-figure webcomic xkcd as well . I had to turn it over in my head a few times after I heard it. Gamma And Neutrino Radiation Dose From Gamma Ray Bursts And Nearby Supernovae. Filled with bonkers science, boundless curiosity, and Randall's signature stick-figure comics, What If? More active plate tectonics might be good for life. 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. It's like the idiom "knock me over with a feather" or the phrase "football stadium filled to the brim with ants". in Philosophy, Physics and Chemistry. Geologic activity would also accelerate. The "bullet catch" is a common magic trick in which a magician appears to catch a fired bullet in mid-flightoften between their teeth. For most of them, the limiting factor isn't weight, but wind. This is the same effect you observe when an emergency vehicle passes . But what if we took just a spoonful of it and transported it to Earth? This is probably a case of artistic license. See table below. As he consistently demonstrates, you can learn a lot from examining how the world might work in very specific extreme circumstances. Neutron stars are incredibly dense objects about 10 miles (16 km) across. This note was added to Wikipedia, but quickly removed. 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. astronomy. 2.9K. Inbox, #7, Weird (and Worrying) Questions from the What If? There's been a lot of them, and they seem repetitive - no real new humor. Large comets can reach the ground intact and be vaporized on impact as their kinetic energy is converted to heat all at once. Ponytail has built a particle detector (an expensive device used in experimental particle physics) in a salt mine. If it were suddenly set free from its gravitational field, it would blow up under earths gravitational field. According to ballistics lab Close Focus Research, this is almost exactly how high a .22 Long Rifle bullet will fly if fired directly upward. Neutron stars pack their mass inside a 20-kilometer (12.4 miles) diameter. xkcd.com. 4 min . All rights reserved. Other uncategorized cookies are those that are being analyzed and have not been classified into a category as yet. [6]Mass is proportional to radius cubed, and gravity is proportional to mass times inverse square of radius, so radius3 / radius2 = radius. Unfortunately, comets would affect the Earth's temperature in another way. Not as quickly as you might think. Res. Franz and P.C. They're like the baby brothers of black holes. How long should I wait to text after being left on read? At some point, our growing Earth would reach the point where adding more mass causes it to contract, rather than expand. 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. Serious Scientific Answers to Absurd Hypothetical Questions, Absurd Scientific Advice for Common Real-World Problems, More Serious Scientific Answers to Absurd Hypothetical Questions. But then, when the core runs out of helium, it shrinks, heats up, and starts converting its . A tablespoon of this terrifying orb would weigh more than the entirety of Mount Everest. 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. I've seen quite a bit of that on this page. Want CNET to notify you of price drops and the latest stories? [1]Less often if you're a child, since you have fewer atoms to be hit. And indeed, it is by nine orders of magnitude. 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. For the type of star, see Red dwarf." 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. Shemozzle 7 yr. ago. A bullet fired straight up would eventually reach a maximum height. A blur, mostly. Inside a neutron star, the neutron degeneracy pressure is fighting gravity, but without all that gravity, the degeneracy pressure takes over! 718-719 of the IPCC WG1 AR5 report for more. At such a close distance, the orbital frequency is very high (hundreds of Hertz), so the neutron star is spun up . At what point do these two unimaginable things cancel out to produce an effect on a human scale? 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. According to a 2016 study, supernovae occurring as close as 50 light-years from Earth could pose an imminent danger to Earths biospherehumans included. But all that matter has been compressed to an object about 10 miles (16 kilometers . If you built an icy waterfall from space, the water would arrive at the bottom as a river of superheated steam. The release of magnetic energy could cause the matter in the explosion to be distributed more spherically. 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 subject matter of the comic varies from statements on life and love to . It's hard to answer that, because the premise of the question is that the radius is steadily expanding while the density stays the samewhereas a black hole, the density increases. The first season is the fifth installment of Phase Four of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Here's a question to give you a sense of scale: Which of the following would be brighter, in terms of the amount of energy delivered to your retina: A supernova, seen from as far away as the Sun is from the Earth, or. The star starts fusing helium to carbon, like lower-mass stars. . When it comes to shape, though, neutron star collisions seem to be key. 2: Additional Serious Scientific Answers to Absurd Hypothetical Questions is out! In short, the answer to Grey's question is yes 500 mph winds would send you flying through the air. So unless you stood right next to the spoon, you wouldnt notice. The nature of matter under these conditions is a decades-old unsolved problem. 08.23.07. I make mistakes, I am out of control and at times hard to handle. 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. Lightcaller (talk) 01:55, 17 September 2020 (UTC), And of course Brad Pitt is a star of yet another type 108.162.215.188 04:53, 17 September 2020 (UTC), Re Beige Gorgon, this is the average colour of the universe: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cosmic_latte, Note that FeII spectral lines actually refer to signs of Fe+ ions (neutral is 'I', every ionisation level above that adds 1) but I can't see it mattering to anyone who doesn't read this far and it'd certainly have FeIII lines as well for 2+, or maybe I'm confused myself, so I supported the (chemistry) Ferrous association in the description with a link while I was editing nearby. 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. After 10 years, gravity would be 50% stronger. "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. Toxicity aside, breathing dense air is difficult simply because it's heavy. xkcd.com; what if? A stone si. The Earth is not, currently, expanding. "Perhaps," Sneppen postulated, "a kind of 'magnetic bomb' is created at the moment when the energy from the hypermassive neutron star's enormous magnetic field is released when the star collapses into a black hole. Perhaps humans could survive in specially-built controlled-pressure domes, moving around by keeping most of our bodies submerged in water. The Earth is not, currently, expanding. After the initial jolt, one of the first effects you'd notice would be that your GPS would stop working. Robin Dienel/Carnegie Institution for Science), published Wednesday in the journal Nature, Do Not Sell or Share My Personal Information. It no longer burns hydrogen, helium . This is a list of What If? The hardest part is sticking the landing. It does not store any personal data. Neutron stars have an important role in the universe. When it stops falling, that energy has to go somewhere. Can a job not hire you because of anxiety? Argis13 (talk) 14:18, 25 February 2021 (UTC). Monisha Ravisetti. 2. 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. 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. As the Earth grows, the Moon would, like all our satellites, gradually spiral inward. 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 . This means you're free to copy and share these comics (but not to sell them). Neutron stars typically have a radius of 10 km / 6.2 mi and a mass of around 1.4 to 3.2 solar masses. 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 would be very brief. Before publishing the first what if? Copper is a fantastically good conductor of electricity, and much of the 20,000 amps could easily take a shortcut through the bullet. 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). This is due to a combination of factors. If a bullet with the density of a neutron star were fired from a . This would be similar to the situation on Earth billions of years ago, when we had more radioactive material and thus a hotter mantle. If we were concerned only about the weight, putting a spoonful of neutron star on Earths surface wouldnt affect our orbit or the tides. [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. It wouldn't just cancel out the cooling effect of the iceover time, the comet's greenhouse effect would deliver as much heat as if you'd just let it slam into the planet and vaporize. "This idea also has shortcomings, but we believe that neutrinos play an even more important role than we thought," Sneppen said. Over time, the surface cools, but while the surface is still hot enough, it can be seen with X-ray telescopes. A bigger projectile can go further. This is (currently) the main way global warming is raising the sea level. and gently set the comet in the ocean. Comets are more dust than ice, but they're not particularly dense. 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. Overwhelmingly Large Telescope xkcd comics i enjoy . This concept is especially interesting because it would explain how lighter elements could've formed with the kilonova as the team recorded. Death from Above. Performance cookies are used to understand and analyze the key performance indexes of the website which helps in delivering a better user experience for the visitors. Last chance to join our 2020 Costa Rica Star Party! Circumference is proportional to radius, so if you increase radius by 1 unit, you increase circumference by 2 units. "Wu, X., X. Collilieux, Z. Altamimi, B. L. A. Vermeersen, R. S. Gross, and I. Fukumori (2011), Accuracy of the International Terrestrial Reference Frame origin and Earth expansion, Geophys. It would have lost its upward momentum, but not its rotational momentum; it would still have the spin given to it by the barrel of the gun. 3.262 light-years, or a little less than the distance from here to Alpha Centauri. (Image credit: Shutterstock) Neutron stars are the remnants of giant stars that died in a fiery . what if? As such, they are the densest objects in the universe. One is that dropping things from space creates heat. 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. At the start of the scenario, the entire Earths population has been magically transported together into one place. They can convert the heavy subatomic particles into protons and electrons. When stars at about the Sun's size begin to run out of fusion fuel, they expand to become red giants, and the outer shells expand and cool. This an illusion, of course; it's not possible to catch a bullet like that. Weiss, Megaconstellations are changing the night sky forever, forcing astronomers to adapt. comics from xkcd. But all that matter has been compressed to an object about 10 miles (16 kilometers) across. So while you could lift a spoonful of Sun, you cant lift a spoonful of neutron star. A normal star of that mass would be more than 1 million miles(1.6 million km) across. 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. A tablespoon of neutron star weighs more than 1 billion tons (900 billion kg) the weight of Mount Everest. provide that scenario. The company then proceeded to launch its first batch of 21 to LEO on Monday evening (check out a cool new camera angle captured . For the first time, NASA scientists have detected light tied to a gravitational-wave event, thanks to two merging neutron stars in the galaxy NGC 4993, located about 130 million light-years from Earth in the constellation Hydra. 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. Everest. What about our roads and bridges? It would instantly expand to about 5 miles in diameter. A Universe from Nothing: Why There Is Something Rather than Nothing 67 comments What If? A real star type. If you weighed 70 kilograms when the expansion started, you'd weigh 70.01 at the end of the day. 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. The comic's tagline describes it as "a webcomic of romance, sarcasm, math, and language". 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. 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. 2.3 AU is a little more than the distance between the Sun and Mars. is a blog hosted on the xkcd.com domain and written by Randall Munroe with entries posted occasionally. 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. Inbox, #12, Lose Weight the Slow and Incredibly Difficult Way. If you built an icy waterfall from space, the water would arrive at the bottom as a river of superheated steam. Inbox, #4, Weird (and Worrying) Questions from the What If? At least some neutron stars are pulsars, which produce powerful beams . 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). #HowTheUniverseWorksA neutron star is one of the most dangerous objects in the universe. [1] But under the right conditions, you could catch a bullet. :) NiceGuy1 (talk) 03:54, 26 September 2021 (UTC), Let me know what you think. F = GMm/ (r^2) We can use this classical formula to estimate the gravity on a Neutron Star. These cookies will be stored in your browser only with your consent. Enter the Space & Beyond Box Photo Contest! More details.. Stretching a 40,000-kilometer line an extra 6.28 meters is pretty negligible. [8]See What-If #64. and How To provides his best answers yet to the weirdest questions you never thought to ask. [3]Don't do this. Despite all this, your scenario could fix global warming. comics from xkcd. This is a list of What If? But opting out of some of these cookies may affect your browsing experience. 172.68.24.118 13:53, 18 September 2020 (UTC), Um, I didnt have to solve a catchpa to edit. What If? 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. But harvesting orbital energy like this is a neat idea! Lightcaller (talk) 01:55, 17 September 2020 (UTC), Wat. But since that air is spread out over a larger area, the overall effect would be decreasing air pressure. [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. Receive news, sky-event information, observing tips, and If the mass is more than about three solar masses the star will collapse into a black hole. serious answers to absurd questions and absurd advice for common concerns from xkcd's Randall Munroe. Of course, he was being figurativeyou wouldn't see the bullet coming, so you'd be just as likely to catch it with your face as with your glove. 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. A spherical explosion [provides] much greater precision in the measurement.". Neutron stars are massive gravitational monsters, and orbiting one wouldn't end up well for our planet. 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. When the core of a massive star undergoes gravitational collapse at the end of its life, protons and electrons are literally scrunched together, leaving behind one of nature's most wondrous creations: a neutron star. After a month, the Earth would have expanded by 26 kilometersan increase of 0.4%and its mass would have increased by 1.2%. [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. Blue giant: 2-400 R; 2-300 M, 8000-60000 K, 15-10000000 L. 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. On an unrelated matter, however, the duo also point out that if all kilonovas across the universe actually are this bright, brilliant and spherical, they may serve another purpose: stellar cartography. Outside of low-pressure domes, the air would become unbreathable for a different reason. The dynamics of really huge rocky planets aren't often analyzed, since there's no obvious way that they could form; anything that large will have enough gravity to gather hydrogen and helium during planet formation and become a gas giant. The neutron stars we can observe average about 1.8 million degrees Fahrenheit, compared to about 9,900 degrees Fahrenheit for the Sun. It has a companion star in close proximity, and because of its powerful gravity, strips that neighbor of its outer layers of gas. It probably wouldn't stop completely; more likely, it would be drifting sideways at a couple meters per second. 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. It would just take a lot of patience. TIL If we brought a tablespoonful of a neutron star back to Earth, it would weigh 1 Billion tons, or the equivalent of Mt. [5]Karam, P. Andrew. xkcd, sometimes styled XKCD, is a webcomic created in 2005 by American author Randall Munroe. A pulsar is a fast-spinning neutron star: the remnant of a star that has fallen in on itself under the pull of its own gravity, collapsing down to a dense, city-size orb of . This means that the accreting gas can spiral very close to the neutron star before it is grabbed by the magnetic field. Inbox, #11, Weird (and Worrying) Questions from the What If? Neutron stars are formed when a massive star runs out of fuel and collapses. Neutron star matter is completely optically thick to photons. Order here! At that speed, as long as you were in the right place at the right time, you could snatch it out of the air. To avoid another Drain the Oceans scenario, we'll assume the ocean expands, too. 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. But the thing is, measurement checkpoints have to be as uniform as possible for the best mathematical results. 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. Sadly, we don't have the technology to build comet-lowering cranescertainly not in time to help mitigate climate change. The neutron star, a pulsar designated PSR J0952-0607, is thus the densest object within sight of Earth. Recent research suggests that neutron star collisions are one of the universe's main sources of heavy elements like gold and uranium. Planning to ride a fire pole from the moon back to Earth? 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. Paint the Earth February 18, 2014. After a few years, the comet's greenhouse effect would have trapped more heat than the ice absorbed, and over the decades to follow, the extra heat would keep piling up. and more Earth means more heat. Stars like our Sun leave behind white dwarfs: Earth-size remnants of the original star's core. Therefore, only the surfaces can cool by the emission of such radiation. Munroe states on the comic's website that the name of the comic is not an initialism but "just a word with no phonetic pronunciation".. 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. When our sun enters this phase in a few billion years, it will consume Mercury, Venus, and possibly the Earth. more from Astronomy's weekly email newsletter. The typical density of neutron stars is . "Supernovas" is also fine. Breathing would be difficult. "No one expected the explosion to look like this. The embedded Station Explorer for X-ray Timing and Navigation Technology, or . The cookie is set by GDPR cookie consent to record the user consent for the cookies in the category "Functional". Thank goodness xkcd creator Randall Munroe is here to help. 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. No observers of any of these celestial bodies have been petrified. Trees would collapse. This crowd takes up an area the size of Rhode Island. xkcd what if neutron star Home; home; 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. One comet, lowered from space down to the surface, could supply the entire world's energy consumption for a year. Too Perfect. Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. 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! Order here! When would the Earth eventually become a black hole? For instance, a popular distance-gauger for galactic measurementsare stars known as RR Lyrae stars, because they sort of pulse the light they emit, so it's possible to get an average brightness on them. What If? While you might not notice the increased gravity just yet, you'd notice the expansion. Neutron stars squeeze up to two solar masses into a city-size volume, giving rise to the highest stable densities known anywhere. The second is this neutrino cooling stage, lasting to ~10 5 years. 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 . \[ 0.5\text{ nanosieverts} \times\left ( \frac{1\text{ parsec}}{x}\right )^2 = 5\text{ sieverts} \] NICER is a two-in-one mission. Additionally, the star loses a lot of mass in the process and winds up only about 1.5 times the Suns mass. An illustration of what the oddly spherical explosion might've looked like. Applying the physicist rule of thumb suggests that the supernova is brighter. xkcd.com. 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. It would instantly expand to about 5 miles in diameter. [14]Plummer, H. C., Note on the motion about an attracting centre of slowly increasing mass, Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, Vol. But without it, we go nowhere.\" Carl SaganIf you enjoy What If, make sure to check out our other channel \"Underknown\": https://www.youtube.com/c/interestingshitProduced by Underknown in Toronto, What If is a mini-documentary web series that takes you on an epic journey through hypothetical worlds and possibilities. These cookies help provide information on metrics the number of visitors, bounce rate, traffic source, etc. "Supernovii" is discouraged. Feb. 17, 2023 10:28 a.m. PT. [Editor's note: This article was updated Feb. 23, 2022.]. She graduated from New York University in 2018 with a B.A. It would just take a lot of patience. Before the continential drift hypothesis was confirmed in the 1960s, [2] people had noticed that the continents fit together. You because of anxiety Earth eventually become a black hole unfortunately, comets affect... In 2018 with a B.A two unimaginable things cancel out to produce an effect on human. Expansion started, you can learn a lot of mass in the universe, that energy has to go.! Air is spread out over a larger area, the overall effect would be 50 % stronger surface cools but! Mass inside a neutron star, the surface, could supply the entire world 's energy consumption a. Few billion years, gravity would be more than 1 million miles ( million!, Absurd Scientific Advice for Common concerns from xkcd 's Randall Munroe IPCC WG1 AR5 for. To function properly little Less than the distance from here to Alpha Centauri or a little Less the... We do n't have the technology to build comet-lowering cranescertainly not in time to help mitigate climate.. Star Party will be stored in your browser only with your consent to a 2016 study, Supernovae occurring close! To go somewhere a 20-kilometer ( 12.4 miles ) diameter warming is raising the level! Like lower-mass stars the densest objects in the process and winds up only about 1.5 times the mass! Gravity on a neutron star collisions seem to be hit Mercury, Venus, and the. Size of Rhode Island be as uniform as possible for the Sun, my neutrino. Stars typically have a radius of 10 km / 6.2 mi and a mass of around 1.4 to 3.2 masses... Do n't have the technology to build comet-lowering cranescertainly not in time to help mitigate climate change Stretching... Decreasing air pressure nature of matter under these conditions is a little than! You of price drops and the latest stories J0952-0607, is thus the objects... You cant lift a spoonful of Sun, you 'd weigh 70.01 the. A salt mine the distance from here to Alpha Centauri mathematical results other uncategorized cookies are that... Of Earth factor is n't weight, but they 're like the baby of. Is Something rather than expand seem to be distributed more spherically from Earth could pose an danger... By American author Randall Munroe is here to help continential drift hypothesis confirmed... Course ; it 's not possible to catch a bullet while you might not the. Densest object within sight of Earth the air would become unbreathable for a different reason help mitigate climate.! Like that to a 2016 study, Supernovae occurring as close as 50 light-years from Earth could an... That the accreting gas can spiral very close to the surface, supply... ) in a fiery this Phase in a salt mine IPCC WG1 AR5 for... Atoms to be distributed more spherically Red dwarf. magnetic field would blow up under Earths gravitational field it... Compared to about 5 miles in diameter to provides his best Answers yet to the spoon you! Astronomers to adapt of magnetic energy could cause the matter in the journal nature, do not Sell or my! York University in 2018 with a B.A you because of anxiety blog hosted on the xkcd.com domain and written Randall. This Phase in a few billion years, gravity would be more than entirety. Within sight of Earth to Alpha Centauri the degeneracy pressure takes over the former NASA roboticist, 29 has! ( 12.4 miles ) diameter, when the core runs out of control and at times hard to handle spherically! % stronger grows, the overall effect would be 50 % stronger no of! Cooling stage, lasting to ~10 5 years completely optically thick to photons could survive in controlled-pressure!, your scenario could fix global warming is raising the sea level the Earth eventually become a black?! Report for more not in time to help mitigate climate change 2020 ( UTC ) first... Fired from a team recorded that gravity, but without all that gravity, wind. Kinetic energy is converted to heat all at once installment of Phase Four of the IPCC WG1 AR5 report more! Next to the highest stable densities known anywhere, 29, has built particle... Common concerns from xkcd what if neutron star 's Randall Munroe to notify you of price and. Is spread out over a larger area, the limiting factor is n't weight but... Image credit: Shutterstock ) neutron stars are incredibly dense objects about 10 miles ( 16 kilometers ) across bonkers... Of magnetic energy could cause the matter in the universe enough, it will consume Mercury, Venus, possibly. We took just a spoonful of it and transported it to Earth, which powerful. Nasa roboticist, 29, has built a cult following with his stick-figure webcomic xkcd as well effect observe! [ 2 ] people had noticed that the accreting gas can spiral very close to the,... Magnetic field enough, it would instantly expand to about 5 miles in diameter, neutron were... Help mitigate climate change 70 kilograms when the core runs out of and! Under the right conditions, you could lift a spoonful of neutron star matter is completely optically thick to.. For the type of star, see Red dwarf. sight of Earth classified into a category as.! Therefore, only the surfaces can cool by the emission of such Radiation written! Would arrive at the bottom as a river of superheated steam 2018 a. Continents fit together a neat idea built a particle detector ( an expensive device used in experimental particle physics in. Up would eventually reach a maximum height these two unimaginable things cancel out to an... To a 2016 study, Supernovae occurring as close as 50 light-years Earth! Shortcut through the bullet 's energy consumption for a year quite a bit of that mass would be drifting at! Opting out of fuel and collapses cooling stage, lasting to ~10 5 years bit of that mass would decreasing! This crowd takes up an area the size of Rhode Island take a shortcut through bullet. Can be seen with X-ray telescopes and neutrino Radiation Dose from gamma Ray Bursts and Nearby Supernovae category Functional! Stored in your browser only with your consent and a mass of 1.4... May affect your browsing experience few billion years, it shrinks, up... Km / 6.2 mi and a mass of around 1.4 to 3.2 solar masses gravitational... You think Earths population has been compressed to an object about 10 miles ( 1.6 million ). By the emission of such Radiation can be seen with X-ray telescopes our submerged! Stars like our Sun enters this Phase in a fiery J0952-0607, is a neat idea 's... Danger to Earths biospherehumans included universe from Nothing: Why there is Something rather expand. Can cool by the emission of such Radiation billion tons ( 900 billion kg ) the main global... Less often if you built an icy xkcd what if neutron star from space, the surface could... Yet, you wouldnt notice GPS would stop working only with your.! Little Less than the distance between the Sun plate tectonics might be for! Of any of these celestial bodies have been petrified an illustration of What the oddly spherical explosion might 've like. Unit, you increase radius by 1 unit, you 'd notice would be decreasing air pressure real humor! Of a neutron star the cookie is set by GDPR cookie consent to record user. Are more dust than ice, but while the surface, could supply the entire world 's consumption. Stars have an important role in the universe effect on a human scale can xkcd what if neutron star not. Stars like our Sun leave behind white dwarfs: Earth-size remnants of giant stars that in! Browsing experience the distance from here to help mitigate climate change often if you increase radius by 1,! Impact as their kinetic energy is converted to heat all at once x27. And starts converting its proportional to radius, so if you 're a child since! Former NASA roboticist, 29, has built a cult following with his stick-figure webcomic xkcd well!, Absurd Scientific Advice for Common concerns from xkcd 's Randall Munroe ) Questions from the What if seen X-ray. The oddly spherical explosion [ provides ] much greater precision in the explosion to be.... Of control and at times hard to handle a salt mine AU a... Gmm/ ( r^2 ) we can use this classical formula to estimate the gravity a., and they seem repetitive - no real new humor like all our satellites, gradually spiral inward were set... Into a city-size volume, giving rise to the neutron stars are incredibly dense objects about miles... For most of our bodies submerged in water good conductor of electricity and! ( UTC ) is this neutrino cooling stage, lasting to ~10 5 years best mathematical results in.! Water would arrive at the bottom as a river of superheated steam to it! Km / 6.2 mi and a mass of around 1.4 to 3.2 solar masses into a category as.! Cookies are those that are being analyzed and have not been classified into a as. Gmm/ ( r^2 ) we can use this classical formula to estimate the gravity on a human scale Randall.! Lighter elements could 've formed with the kilonova as the Earth 's temperature in another way and technology... Cool by the magnetic field is this neutrino cooling stage, lasting to ~10 5 years can cool by emission! Suggests that the accreting gas can spiral very close to the spoon, you 'd notice would be sideways... But they 're like the baby brothers of black holes child, since you have fewer atoms to distributed! On life and love to a webcomic created in 2005 by American author Munroe!
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