more from Astronomy's weekly email newsletter. What If? At this point, the star is simply getting . Although there are some black holes with a mass of 70 times the sun). A tablespoon of a neutron star weights about 1 billion tons. New York: Basic Books, 2012. To map out the rate at which our universe is exponentially expanding -- a major confusionin itself -- scientists need landmarks and guides just like you'd expect an Earth cartographer would when mapping our rocky planet. Measure how distances between various cosmic objects increase over time and you can extrapolate how the universe is ceaselessly ballooning outward. These cookies help provide information on metrics the number of visitors, bounce rate, traffic source, etc. "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. in Philosophy, Physics and Chemistry. The millions of people around the world who read and loved What If? Surface gravity would only have gone up by 0.4%, rather than 1.2%, since surface gravity is proportional to radius. The Only! In any of these scenarios, you'd have to get extraordinarily lucky. Far-Traveling Objects March 4, 2014. 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. After the first day, the Earth would have expanded by 864 meters. [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. The neutron star, a pulsar designated PSR J0952-0607, is thus the densest object within sight of Earth. 125. (Heavier stars produce stellar-mass black holes.) Red Dwarf is also a science fiction TV series being produced in UK since 1988, named after the eponymous mining ship. [1] People have long suggested that it might be. 16. 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.". But what if we took just a spoonful of it and transpo. "No one expected the explosion to look like this. 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. Breathing in this situation would be difficult. For most of them, the limiting factor isn't weight, but wind. 2 What would happen if a neutron star was placed close to the earth? You also have the option to opt-out of these cookies. After a year, gravity would be 5% stronger. 108.162.238.5 06:04, 19 September 2020 (UTC), 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 (pulsars, X-ray binaries, radio emissions, magnetic fields) when compared to live stars. Inside a neutron star, the neutron degeneracy pressure is fighting gravity, but without all that gravity, the degeneracy pressure takes over! 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. To avoid the problem of rifts in the ground, let's imagine all the matter in the Earth, from the crust to the core, starts expanding uniformly. The release of magnetic energy could cause the matter in the explosion to be distributed more spherically. 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 . They are so dense that a single teaspoon would weigh a billion tons assuming you somehow managed to snag a sample . 2 is sure to be another instant classic adored by inquisitive readers of all ages. 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 . How do you prevent jellyfish stings when swimming? Everest would no longer be in the "death zone". If you weighed 70 kg when the expansion started, you'd weigh 88 kg now. The comet isn't the important part, the crane is. "@xkcd Reminds me of the Neutron Star cocktail from "What If?"" Unlike the larger, original Starlink V2s designed for Starship, these upgraded Starlink satellites are still designed to launch on Falcon 9. We use cookies on our website to give you the most relevant experience by remembering your preferences and repeat visits. We can use the Doppler effect to measure the orbital motion of a pulsar. 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".. (This added heat is minor compared to the cooling effects of evaporation on the way down, so the actual temperature at the bottom is likely colder.). 2: Additional Serious Scientific Answers to Absurd Hypothetical Questions is out! View our Privacy Policy. Only small insects (and sea animals) would be physically able to move around. [9]Although I wouldn't trust the elevators. 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. Most buildings would probably be ok, although those anchored firmly into bedrock might start to behave unpredictably. feed 2022 . Hercules X-1 isn't alone in space. A neutron star typically would have a mass that's perhaps half-a-million times the mass of the Earth, but they're only about 20 kilometres (12 miles) across (about the size of London). Here's a puzzle I once heard: Though it may seem like you'd need miles of rope, the answer is 6.28 meters. still have questions, and those questions are getting stranger. 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. [1]This was confirmed by Mythbusters in episode 4 of Season 4. Neutron stars are phenomenally dense. 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 . 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. articles, published either in Randall Munroe's What If? If you built an icy waterfall from space, the water would arrive at the bottom as a river of superheated steam. 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. Various ideas were put forward to explain this, including the idea that the ocean basins were rifts that opened in the surface of a . Neutron stars cram roughly 1.3 to 2.5 solar masses into a city-sized sphere perhaps 20 kilometers (12 miles) across. The hardest part is sticking the landing. Geologic activity would also accelerate. Inbox, #8, Weird (and Worrying) Questions from the What If? A bigger projectile can go further. It's a shame humans wouldn't live this long, because at this point, something really neat would happen. Filled with bonkers science, boundless curiosity, and Randall's signature stick-figure comics, What If? Explain xkcd: It's 'cause you're dumb. "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. Statistically, my first neutrino interaction probably happened somewhere around age 10. 718-719 of the IPCC WG1 AR5 report for more. 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. A tiny piece of a comet would float for a short time until it became waterlogged, melted, and broke apart. But opting out of some of these cookies may affect your browsing experience. A sugar cube of neutron star material weighs as . To avoid another Drain the Oceans scenario, we'll assume the ocean expands, too. 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. Hall thrusters go argon with Starlink V2 mini. At this point, astronauts on the ISS would start getting worried. This would be similar to the situation on Earth billions of years ago, when we had more radioactive material and thus a hotter mantle. shooter is at sea level and catcher is up a mountain at the extreme range of the gun. The third and final one is the photon cooling stage, lasting for the rest of the neutron star's life. 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. Neutron stars are incredibly dense objects about 10 miles (16 km) across. Order here! Mount Thor, which you may remember from question #51, features a vertical drop of 1,250 meters. provide that scenario. 08.23.07. 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. 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. You'd probably notice the weight gain, and you'd definitely notice the failure of roads, bridges, power lines, satellites, and undersea cables. 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. Neutron stars squeeze up to two solar masses into a city-size volume, giving rise to the highest stable densities known anywhere. Guide to Cooking on Your Car Engine! 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. Well, I'd argue,anything except what scientists just observed. While you might not notice the increased gravity just yet, you'd notice the expansion. Res. It's okay. Sneppen also offers that, in the milliseconds during which the two neutron stars collided to form a giant neutron star, that newly minted mega star might've emitted a bunch of neutrinos. If it were suddenly set free from its gravitational field, it would blow up under earths gravitational field. This an illusion, of course; it's not possible to catch a bullet like that. 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. No matter what, you do not want to find yourself near a neutron star. 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. 172.68.24.130 11:02, 30 November 2020 (UTC), No, not really. Neutron star matter is completely optically thick to photons. 2.3 AU is a little more than the distance between the Sun and Mars. Everything within that 5 mile field would be blown away, as if hit with a nuclear bomb. This is the type of star that. [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). 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. These stellar beasts, made mostly of neutrons, are basically ultra-dense cosmic corpses roaming around space and, with incomprehensibly strong gravitational fields, torturing everything in their paths. Everything within that 5 mile field would be blown away, as if hit with a nuclear bomb. If the atmosphere isn't growing like the land and water are, air pressure would start dropping. After a month, the Earth would have expanded by 26 kilometersan increase of 0.4%and its mass would have increased by 1.2%. If you want to use larger bullets, you'll need a much larger drop; an AK-47's bullet can go over two kilometers upward. 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. [ 1 ] this was confirmed by Mythbusters in episode 4 of Season 4 give you the relevant... Were suddenly set free from its gravitational field is up a mountain at the bottom a... Volume, giving rise to the highest stable densities known anywhere the explosion to like... Mining ship its gravitational field this an illusion, of course ; it & # x27 ; s stick-figure! 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On our website to give you the most relevant experience by remembering your xkcd what if neutron star and visits! Are incredibly dense objects about 10 miles ( 16 km ) across,!