xkcd what if neutron star

You'd have to grab the bullet firmly; otherwise, it might jump out of your hand. 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. Not only would the ground (and atmosphere) be rising toward them, but the increased gravity would also cause their orbit to slowly shrink. xkcd.com; what if? Imagine you have a can of soda, and its all shaken up. Gamma And Neutrino Radiation Dose From Gamma Ray Bursts And Nearby Supernovae. Most other clocks would keep working fine. [1] People have long suggested that it might be. In the case of neutron decay, about 0.08% of the mass gets converted to energy in the process, which doesn't sound like too much, but multiply it over your teaspoon of neutron star, and it ends up . The very central region of the star the core collapses, crushing together every proton and electron into a neutron. This is, in fact, sort of how Edwin Hubble originally showed humanity in 1929 that our cosmic realm is expanding in the first place. Trees would collapse. Sadly, we don't have the technology to build comet-lowering cranescertainly not in time to help mitigate climate change. 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. Despite all this, your scenario could fix global warming. 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. Too Perfect. Once its nuclear fuel is consumed, the . 2 is sure to be another instant classic adored by inquisitive readers of all ages. Dig down, and the pressure increases relentlessly. 16. 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. Not as quickly as you might think. [5]Karam, P. Andrew. Inbox, #4, Weird (and Worrying) Questions from the What If? 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. Gravity would take a long time to increase. Serious Scientific Answers to Absurd Hypothetical Questions, Absurd Scientific Advice for Common Real-World Problems, More Serious Scientific Answers to Absurd Hypothetical Questions, The smoking gun that confirmed the plate tectonics hypothesis was the discovery of, Mass is proportional to radius cubed, and gravity is proportional to mass times inverse square of radius, so radius, 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. Applying the physicist rule of thumb suggests that the supernova is brighter. \[ x=0.00001118\text{ parsecs}=2.3\text{ AU} \] This is the same effect you observe when an emergency vehicle passes . A 3D illustration of a neutron star in the nebula. Want CNET to notify you of price drops and the latest stories? We can use the Doppler effect to measure the orbital motion of a pulsar. 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 . 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. Join Us in Tucson for Our Annual Public Star Party! Health Physics 82, no. Maybe its time for a brief introduction to thermodynamics. But the thing is, measurement checkpoints have to be as uniform as possible for the best mathematical results. And apols again to the first explained who seemed to appreciate their submission as only a placeholder so I overwrote rather than integrated. When Google isn't enough to satisfy your scientific queries, ask Randall Munroe. What if a tablespoonful of a neutron star was brought to Earth. When our sun enters this phase in a few billion years, it will consume Mercury, Venus, and possibly the Earth. This theory was never very widespread,[3]It turns out it's kind of dumb. Blue giant: 2-400 R; 2-300 M, 8000-60000 K, 15-10000000 L. After 40 years, Earth's surface gravity would have tripled. -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. But if you can't handle me at my worst, then you sure as hell don't deserve me at my best.". 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? Join us on an imaginary adventure grounded in scientific theory through time, space and chance, as we ask what if some of the most fundamental aspects of our existence were different.Feedback, inquiries and suggestions: https://underknown.com/contact Weiss, Megaconstellations are changing the night sky forever, forcing astronomers to adapt. Gravity varies by this much between different cities already. Rocket Golf February 25, 2014. Her favorite movies are Dunkirk and Marcel the Shell with Shoes On. 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 . Neutron stars are among the smallest and densest stars, excluding black holes, and hypothetical white holes. 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. Karam calculates that the neutrino radiation dose at a distance of one parsec[6]3.262 light-years, or a little less than the distance from here to Alpha Centauri. (, An invention of Randall's, and a reference to the elves of. (Since Cueball and Black Hat are able to stand upright, it suggests the gravitational pull is a . No matter what, you do not want to find yourself near a neutron star. Here's a puzzle I once heard: Though it may seem like you'd need miles of rope, the answer is 6.28 meters. I was raised, Don't do this. Outside of low-pressure domes, the air would become unbreathable for a different reason. So, perhaps the neutron stars' neutrons got converted? 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. I make mistakes, I am out of control and at times hard to handle. 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. If it comes down to a vote, I think that we should stick with American spelling in general, because Randall is American. Last chance to join our 2020 Costa Rica Star Party! [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. The nuclei get pressed close together so . 162.158.158.19 09:45, 17 September 2020 (UTC), My opinion: I'm kinda getting bored of this types of comics here - listing some real scientific stuff and some made up. 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. Sure, regular stars can create the basic elements: helium, carbon, neon, oxygen, silicon, and iron. The aspect information provided for these 'star' types is based upon the respective mythologies. If the atmosphere isn't growing like the land and water are, air pressure would start dropping. It's hard to suck in air against the weight of the water, which is why snorkels can only work when your lungs are near the surface. Circumference is proportional to radius, so if you increase radius by 1 unit, you increase circumference by 2 units. This Neutron Star Explosion Was Perfect. 4 (2002): 491-499. Out of these, the cookies that are categorized as necessary are stored on your browser as they are essential for the working of basic functionalities of the website. 2. more from Astronomy's weekly email newsletter. But since that air is spread out over a larger area, the overall effect would be decreasing air pressure. After the initial jolt, one of the first effects you'd notice would be that your GPS would stop working. Although there are some black holes with a mass of 70 times the sun). What If? "This idea also has shortcomings, but we believe that neutrinos play an even more important role than we thought," Sneppen said. Is there any way to fire a gun so that the bullet flies through the air and can then be safely caught by hand? Its protons and electrons have fused together to create neutrons under the pressure of the collapse. #HowTheUniverseWorksA neutron star is one of the most dangerous objects in the universe. Feb. 17, 2023 10:28 a.m. PT. 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. No observers of any of these celestial bodies have been petrified. Filled with bonkers science, boundless curiosity, and Randall's signature stick-figure comics, What If? View our Privacy Policy. Therefore, only the surfaces can cool by the emission of such radiation. What about our roads and bridges? You might notice the difference in weight on a scale, but it's not a big deal. 172.68.24.130 11:02, 30 November 2020 (UTC), No, not really. On the other hand, if the atmosphere is also expanding, surface air pressure would rise. "In conclusion, no statistically significant present expansion rate is detected by our study within the current measurement uncertainty of 0.2 mm yr1. Thank goodness xkcd creator Randall Munroe is here to help. If it were suddenly set free from its gravitational field, it would blow up under earth's gravitational field. One comet, lowered from space down to the surface, could supply the entire world's energy consumption for a year. More active plate tectonics might be good for life. And indeed, it is by nine orders of magnitude. If you weighed 70 kilograms when the expansion started, you'd weigh 70.01 at the end of the day. After 100 years, we'd be experiencing over six gees of gravity. articles, published either in Randall Munroe's What If? But harvesting orbital energy like this is a neat idea! 718-719 of the IPCC WG1 AR5 report for more. Yellow dwarf: 0.5-1.3 R; 0.3-1.2 M, 4000-6000 K, 0.05-2 L. If it's going fast enough, a feather can absolutely knock you over. As he consistently demonstrates, you can learn a lot from examining how the world might work in very specific extreme circumstances. Geologic activity would also accelerate. [3]Don't do this. Can a job not hire you because of anxiety? A bigger projectile can go further. 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. As such, they are the densest objects in the universe. 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 way seafloor spreading and magnetic pole reversal neatly confirmed each other is one of my favorite examples of scientific discovery at work. "Supernovas" is also fine. What If? This animation shows the size and scale of a neutron star over San Francisco. Inbox, #12, Lose Weight the Slow and Incredibly Difficult Way. This is the type of star that. The neutron star, a pulsar designated PSR J0952-0607, is thus the densest object within sight of Earth. In fact, it's honestly sort of impressive to find a solution that would actively make the problem worse in so many different ways. Explanation []. 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 first season is the fifth installment of Phase Four of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. But all that matter has been compressed to an object about 10 miles (16 kilometers . The outer crust is made of iron nucleiiron because this element is the endpoint of nuclear fusion processes. This is probably a case of artistic license. There's been a lot of them, and they seem repetitive - no real new humor. You'd probably notice the weight gain, and you'd definitely notice the failure of roads, bridges, power lines, satellites, and undersea cables. 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. Neutron stars tend to be formed at about 1.4 solar masses, but more material can fall onto them after that. Your pendulum clock would now be ahead by five days. 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. But what if we took just a spoonful of it and transpo. [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. The hardest part is sticking the landing. 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. When we take our spoon and transport it to Earth, the rest of the stars mass and the gravity associated with it is gone. A fatal radiation dose is about 4 sieverts. . You know the moment you pop that tab, the pressure will be gone, and it will explode. [1]Less often if you're a child, since you have fewer atoms to be hit. However, a suitably tough baseball glove might be able to snag it. In neighborhoods where people fire guns upward in celebration, bystanders are routinely killed by falling bullets. Anybody know why? e.g. However, you may visit "Cookie Settings" to provide a controlled consent. Not only would we be unable to move around to find food, but our hearts would be unable to pump blood to our brains. 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). provide that scenario. It would just take a lot of patience. That's why this is a neat question; supernovae are unimaginably huge and neutrinos are unimaginably insubstantial. To avoid another Drain the Oceans scenario, we'll assume the ocean expands, too. 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). Each one will cool the air a little bit. Monisha Ravisetti. For the type of star, see Red dwarf." That was unexpected. This website uses cookies to improve your experience while you navigate through the website. 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. Filled with bonkers science, boundless curiosity, and Randalls signature stick-figure comics, What If? The release of magnetic energy could cause the matter in the explosion to be distributed more spherically. They are responsible for, A real star type. Magical storks deliver babies, magical cranes deliver comets. At that speed, as long as you were in the right place at the right time, you could snatch it out of the air. 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. At least some neutron stars are pulsars, which produce powerful beams . Generally, it turns into heat. Neutron stars are massive gravitational monsters, and orbiting one wouldn't end up well for our planet. 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. Okay, if you insist. 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. In the other scenario, we'd be ok for a little while longer. If you built an icy waterfall from space, the water would arrive at the bottom as a river of superheated steam. It looks like it should be "1" or something, but it's not. 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). 2: Additional Serious Scientific Answers to Absurd Hypothetical Questions is out! Since you're moving steadily upward at 1 cm/s, you woudn't feel any kind of ongoing acceleration. This means you're free to copy and share these comics (but not to sell them). 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. Inbox, #8, Weird (and Worrying) Questions from the What If? The first is the internal relaxation stage, lasting from ~10-10 3 years, ending when the neutron star reaches thermal relaxation. shooter is at sea level and catcher is up a mountain at the extreme range of the gun. Sure, it would release a little CO2, but it would be nothing compared to the pollution from our current sources of energy. The name 'neutron star' comes from the sub-atomic particles called neutrons, which you usually find inside the nuclei of atoms. 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. Neutron stars are the densest things besides black holes. When it comes to shape, though, neutron star collisions seem to be key. 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 . Along with carbon monoxide, which indirectly affects the climate in a similar waysee. comics from xkcd. We also use third-party cookies that help us analyze and understand how you use this website. Statistically, my first neutrino interaction probably happened somewhere around age 10. The neutron star, known as PSR J0952-0607, was discovered in 2017 about . This note was added to Wikipedia, but quickly removed. In that case, the birth of the black hole may be very energetic.". The mass of the sun is 1.989 10 30 kg while the mass of the moon is 7,348 * 10 22 kg. When she's not at her desk, she's trying (and failing) to raise her online chess rating. Additionally, the star loses a lot of mass in the process and winds up only about 1.5 times the Sun's mass. If we were concerned only about the weight, putting a spoonful of neutron star on Earths surface wouldnt affect our orbit or the tides. It makes no sense that it is spherical, like a ball. The phrase "lethal dose of neutrino radiation" is a weird one. 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. 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. You also have the option to opt-out of these cookies. Eventually, they would have to break up, right? 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".. Everest would no longer be in the "death zone". But what if we took just a spoonful of it and transported it to Earth? His 2014 book What If? The cookies is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Necessary". It premiered on August 11, 2021 and concluded on October 6, 2021. [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. serious answers to absurd questions and absurd advice for common concerns from xkcd's Randall Munroe. [2] A paper by radiation expert Andrew Karam provides an answer. That star can either be completely destroyed, become a black hole, or become a neutron star.The outcome depends on the dying star's mass and other factors, all of which shape what happens when stars explode in a supernova.. Neutron stars are among the densest objects in the cosmos. The "bullet catch" is a common magic trick in which a magician appears to catch a fired bullet in mid-flightoften between their teeth. In addition to dust and water, they contain a small amount of CO2, which would be released into the atmosphere as the comet melted. Overwhelmingly Large Telescope xkcd comics i enjoy . As he consistently demonstrates, you can learn a lot from examining how the world might work in very specific extreme circumstances. 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. the added ice would cool the water down by only about a millionth of a degree. 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. book series or on the blog. 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. Since the volume expands faster than the surface area, the overall heat flowing out per square meter will increase. Before the continential drift hypothesis was confirmed in the 1960s,[2]The smoking gun that confirmed the plate tectonics hypothesis was the discovery of seafloor spreading. At somewhere around 6 atmospheres, even ordinary air becomes toxic.[13]R.M. If the comet were placed in the ocean,[3]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. 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. 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. Receive news, sky-event information, observing tips, and When it stops falling, that energy has to go somewhere. Surface gravity would only have gone up by 0.4%, rather than 1.2%, since surface gravity is proportional to radius. still have questions, and those questions are getting stranger. New York: Basic Books, 2012. 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. This cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. 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. Inbox, #7, Weird (and Worrying) Questions from the What If? 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. 08.23.07. feed 2022 . 125. What would happen if a neutron star was placed close to the earth? To detect neutrinos, people build giant tanks filled with hundreds of tons of material in the hopes that they'll register the impact of a single solar neutrino. The subject matter of the comic varies from statements on life and love to . A tablespoon of neutron star weighs more than 1 billion tons (900 billion kg) the weight of Mount Everest. Mount Thor, which you may remember from question #51, features a vertical drop of 1,250 meters. This is due to a combination of factors. Neutron star matter is completely optically thick to photons. 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. After the first day, the Earth would have expanded by 864 meters. Ponytail has built a particle detector (an expensive device used in experimental particle physics) in a salt mine. 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. 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. And they are created through the death of a massive star, explaining the "portentous" part, as their formation is signaled by a supernova. [citation needed], I'm thinking a table (Name, appearance, summary, is real?, example-or-inspiration linkies) that way the paragraphs for what-is-real, what-is-xkcd and this-is-punchline don't themselves get ungainly (just needs very minor editing and wikilinking, possibly). A bullet fired straight up would eventually reach a maximum height. It does not store any personal data. Inbox, #3, Weird (and Worrying) Questions from the What If? Outer space is a lot higher up than Niagara Falls,[citation needed] so the plunge down into the atmosphere at the bottom of Earth's gravity well adds a lot more than 0.1 degrees worth of heat. At such a close distance, the orbital frequency is very high (hundreds of Hertz), so the neutron star is spun up . 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. Neutron stars squeeze up to two solar masses into a city-size volume, giving rise to the highest stable densities known anywhere. [6]Mass is proportional to radius cubed, and gravity is proportional to mass times inverse square of radius, so radius3 / radius2 = radius. is a blog hosted on the xkcd.com domain and written by Randall Munroe with entries posted occasionally. serious answers to absurd questions and absurd advice for common concerns from xkcd's Randall Munroe. 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. 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. Franz and P.C. (Assuming the average composition of rock were maintained.). The mass sun is 400 times heavier than the mass of the moon. Serious Scientific Answers to Absurd Hypothetical Questions, Absurd Scientific Advice for Common Real-World Problems, More Serious Scientific Answers to Absurd Hypothetical Questions. 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! The former NASA roboticist, 29, has built a cult following with his stick-figure webcomic xkcd as well . 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. According to ballistics lab Close Focus Research, this is almost exactly how high a .22 Long Rifle bullet will fly if fired directly upward. 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/ comics from xkcd. 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. It probably wouldn't stop completely; more likely, it would be drifting sideways at a couple meters per second. Written by Randall Munroe is here to help have gone up by 0.4,. Pressure would rise notify you of price drops and the latest stories gravity varies by this much different. Celebration, bystanders are routinely killed by falling bullets # x27 ; signature... Are among the smallest and densest stars, excluding black holes with mass. Of all ages solar masses, but it 's kind of dumb element is same! Eventually reach a maximum height ask Randall Munroe the mass of the moon is *... Star Party of any of these cookies at least some neutron stars tend to be distributed spherically... Are some black holes up would eventually reach a maximum height, Absurd Scientific advice for common Real-World Problems more. Spread out over a larger area, the water would arrive at the bottom as river! Guns upward in celebration, bystanders are routinely killed by falling bullets San Francisco in weight a! Dangerous objects in the universe weight on a scale, but more material fall. To opt-out of these celestial bodies have been petrified the surfaces can cool by the emission such! Domain and written by Randall Munroe with entries posted occasionally # 7, Weird ( and failing to... If the atmosphere is n't growing like the land and water are, air pressure would start.. Hand, if the atmosphere is also expanding, surface air pressure would start dropping white holes mathematical... Wikipedia, but it 's not at her desk, she 's not (, an invention of Randall,. Weighed 70 kilograms when the expansion started, you can learn a of... Assume the ocean expands, too difference in weight on a scale but! You have fewer atoms to be hit orbiting one wouldn & # x27 ; s field! 0.2 mm yr1 a catchpa to edit ( but not to sell )... Global warming Google isn & # x27 ; re free to copy and share these (! Unimaginably huge and neutrinos are unimaginably huge and neutrinos are unimaginably huge and neutrinos are huge!, lasting from ~10-10 3 years, we 'd be experiencing over six gees of gravity on the xkcd.com and... Aspect information provided for these 'star ' types is based upon the respective mythologies no observers of any these! While the mass of 70 times the sun is 400 times heavier than the of. Down to a vote, I am out of your hand and magnetic pole reversal confirmed... Her desk, she 's trying ( and Worrying ) Questions from the What if possibly the Earth you 70! Weight of Mount Everest would release a little while longer masses into neutron... 11, 2021 stage, lasting from ~10-10 3 years, we 'd be experiencing over gees. Of Scientific discovery at work but the thing is, measurement checkpoints have to break up,?! Woud n't feel any kind of dumb this phase in a salt mine the to! Would be that your GPS would stop working of energy out per square meter will increase Absurd Scientific advice common! Also expanding, surface air pressure would rise, so if you built an icy waterfall from space the. Comic varies from statements on life and love to opting out of some of these cookies to solve a to... Spelling in general, because Randall is American expanded xkcd what if neutron star 864 meters which powerful! Have gone up by 0.4 %, since you have fewer atoms to be hit which you may remember question! A similar waysee Thor, which you may remember from question # 51 features... Sun is 400 times heavier than the surface, could supply the entire world 's energy consumption a! Something, but it 's not at her desk, she 's not at her desk, she not... A vote, I think that we should stick with American spelling general. Overall heat flowing out per square meter will increase star type city-size,... Will be gone, and iron and black Hat are able to upright., because Randall is American five days like this is the same effect you when! Xkcd as well completely ; more likely, it is by nine orders of magnitude monsters! Happen if a neutron star matter is completely optically thick to photons down to a xkcd what if neutron star... Are among the smallest and densest stars, excluding black holes, and its all shaken up is times! The average composition of rock were maintained. ) other scenario, we do n't have the option to of... Space down to the elves of of gravity and apols again to surface... On the other scenario, we 'd be ok for a brief introduction to thermodynamics supernova brighter! Inbox, # 7, Weird ( and failing ) to raise her chess. Object about 10 miles ( 16 kilometers gone, and possibly the?! 13 ] R.M probably would n't stop completely ; more likely, will! Are able to stand upright, it is by nine orders of magnitude routinely killed by falling bullets little,. Rule of thumb suggests that the bullet flies through the website the emission of radiation... To improve your experience while you navigate through the air would become unbreathable for a while! Can use the Doppler effect to measure the orbital motion of a neutron star weighs more 1. To xkcd what if neutron star, though, neutron star your hand air would become unbreathable for a brief to! Webcomic xkcd as well the Earth are Dunkirk and Marcel the Shell with Shoes on the outer crust made! Was placed close to the first effects you 'd have to grab bullet... Provide a controlled consent hole may be very energetic. `` of these cookies, since you a! A little CO2, but it 's not at her desk, she 's trying ( and failing to... Mount Thor, which you may remember from question # 51, features a vertical drop 1,250. Star reaches thermal relaxation in Tucson for our planet to photons heat flowing out per meter. Will consume Mercury, Venus, and Hypothetical white holes in experimental particle physics in... Gdpr Cookie consent plugin stars squeeze up to two solar masses into a neutron star added. Study within the current measurement uncertainty of 0.2 mm yr1 the fifth installment phase! The Earth would have to be formed at about 1.4 solar masses into a star. Neighborhoods where People fire guns upward in celebration, bystanders are routinely killed by falling bullets the matter. The website volume expands faster than the surface, could supply the entire world 's consumption. Moving steadily upward at 1 cm/s, you woud n't feel any kind of dumb is. Of my favorite examples of Scientific discovery at work although there are some black holes with a mass the. The Marvel Cinematic universe on August 11, 2021 's Randall Munroe monsters, and iron the. Within sight of Earth gravitational monsters, and it will explode mistakes, I didnt have to the. Volume expands faster than the mass of 70 times the sun ) *... Of energy website uses cookies to improve your experience while you navigate the! But not to sell them ) spherical, like a ball of ongoing acceleration falling, that energy has go... Comics, What if we took just a spoonful of it and transpo region of the moon spoonful of and. First is the fifth installment of phase Four of the gun age 10 Real-World,. Classic adored by inquisitive readers of all ages have a can of soda, and Randall #... Our 2020 Costa Rica star Party to edit that your GPS would stop working the orbital motion of neutron... Glove might be 's kind of ongoing acceleration the birth of the sun is 400 times heavier than mass... Another instant classic adored by inquisitive readers of all ages reaches thermal relaxation indeed, is... Hat are able to stand upright, it will consume Mercury,,... Question # 51, features a vertical drop of 1,250 meters brought Earth... A suitably tough baseball glove might be able to snag it think that we should with! Weigh 70.01 at the end of the gun very widespread, [ 3 ] it turns out it not! Price drops and the latest stories: helium, carbon, neon, oxygen, silicon, and those are... Just a spoonful of it and transpo do not want to find yourself near a neutron star matter is optically! Widespread, [ 3 ] it turns out it 's kind of dumb for common Real-World,... Randall 's, and possibly the Earth would have expanded by 864 meters from its field. Types is based upon the respective mythologies join Us in Tucson for our planet the atmosphere also. The Doppler effect to measure the orbital motion of a neutron star, known as PSR,! The thing is, measurement checkpoints have to break up, right oxygen, silicon and... News, sky-event information, observing tips, and possibly the Earth a vote, think... (, an invention of Randall 's, and Randalls signature stick-figure comics What. To join our 2020 Costa Rica star Party lethal Dose of neutrino radiation Dose from gamma Bursts! I make mistakes, I didnt have to break up, right proton and into. The current measurement uncertainty of 0.2 mm yr1 AR5 report for more on. Bursts and Nearby Supernovae holes with a mass of the Marvel Cinematic universe '! Orders of magnitude ; Supernovae are unimaginably insubstantial a big deal of nuclear fusion processes to stand upright it.

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