serious answers to absurd questions and absurd advice for common concerns from xkcd's Randall Munroe. Less often if you're a child, since you have fewer atoms to be hit. In short, the answer to Grey's question is yes 500 mph winds would send you flying through the air. If it comes down to a vote, I think that we should stick with American spelling in general, because Randall is American. Breathing in this situation would be difficult. These cookies will be stored in your browser only with your consent. "@xkcd Reminds me of the Neutron Star cocktail from "What If?"" If it's going fast enough, a feather can absolutely knock you over. For more, see, Accuracy of the International Terrestrial Reference Frame origin and Earth expansion, roughly proportional to the square of their surface area, Barometric hazards within the context of deep-level mining, Note on the motion about an attracting centre of slowly increasing mass. The detonation of a hydrogen bomb pressed against your eyeball? A 3D illustration of a neutron star in the nebula. The outer crust is made of iron nucleiiron because this element is the endpoint of nuclear fusion processes. 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). Neutron stars in these kind of systems are believed to have surface magnetic fields between 10^7 and 10^10 Gauss. As the Earth started expanding, you'd feel a slight jolt, and might even lose your balance for a moment. His 2014 book What If? It explains that during certain supernovae, the collapse of a stellar core into a neutron star, 10 57 neutrinos can be released (one for every proton in the star that collapses to become a neutron). Want CNET to notify you of price drops and the latest stories? (, An invention of Randall's, and a reference to the elves of. where m is the mass of the neutron and h is Planck's constant. serious answers to absurd questions and absurd advice for common concerns from xkcd's Randall Munroe. Okay, if you insist. The CO2 released from the comet would raise the temperature of the Earth for centuries. and more Earth means more heat. xkcd.com; what if? 2023 Astronomy Calendar & Observer's Handbook, Astronomers studied 5,000 star-eating behemoths to find out why black holes twinkle, Astronomers find signatures of short-lived, hypermassive neutron stars, Astronomy Magazine Collection 2016-2020 DVD-ROM. Surprisingly, most skyscrapers would hold up fine under much higher gravity. Only small insects (and sea animals) would be physically able to move around. 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. Is there any way to fire a gun so that the bullet flies through the air and can then be safely caught by hand? The neutron stars we can observe average about 1.8 million degrees Fahrenheit, compared to about 9,900 degrees Fahrenheit for the Sun. This is a list of What If? Explain xkcd: It's 'cause you're dumb. Outside of low-pressure domes, the air would become unbreathable for a different reason. If it were suddenly set free from its gravitational field, it would blow up under earths gravitational field. As confirmed by dozens of YouTube videos (and Mythbusters), bullets fired into ice are often found still spinning rapidly. 4 min . They are so dense that a single teaspoon would weigh a billion tons assuming you somehow managed to snag a sample . 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. 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. If some parts of the neutron star are hotter than others, such as the magnetic poles, then pulses of thermal X-rays from . We can use the Doppler effect to measure the orbital motion of a pulsar. would be around half a nanosievert, or 1/500th the dose from eating a banana.[7]xkcd.com/radiation. 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. It explains that during certain supernovae, the collapse of a stellar core into a neutron star, 1057 neutrinos can be released (one for every proton in the star that collapses to become a neutron). Stretching a 40,000-kilometer line an extra 6.28 meters is pretty negligible. 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 comet isn't the important part, the crane is. Surface gravity would only have gone up by 0.4%, rather than 1.2%, since surface gravity is proportional to radius. This cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. A fatal radiation dose is about 4 sieverts. Delivered on weekdays. Lett., 38, L13304, doi:10.1029/2011GL047450. 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. That's why the phrase "lethal dose of neutrino radiation" sounds weirdit mixes scales in an incongruous way. Since you're moving steadily upward at 1 cm/s, you woudn't feel any kind of ongoing acceleration. 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. wouldn't work for a few reasons. When the Moon passed this boundarycalled the Roche limitit would gradually break apart and Earth would, for a short time, have rings. "This idea also has shortcomings, but we believe that neutrinos play an even more important role than we thought," Sneppen said. (Stars with higher masses will continue to collapse into stellar-mass black holes.). The most common, smallest, and coolest type of true star in the universe. 172.68.24.118 13:53, 18 September 2020 (UTC), Um, I didnt have to solve a catchpa to edit. Although there is a vaguely plausible reason for the star to be called an "iron giant", astronomers do not commonly use that particular name (the alternative of "iron star" is used for an article about hypothesized class of stellar-mass object, though the description allows that there is a separate usage that relates to Eta Carinae) and you are currently only redirected straight upon The Iron Giant, that first movie directed by Brad Bird. A blur, mostly. It would just take a lot of patience. But all that matter has been compressed to an object about 10 miles (16 kilometers . more from Astronomy's weekly email newsletter. While scientific instruments can measure how a mountain-sized mass affects local gravity, the effects are too small for people to feel. Overwhelmingly Large Telescope xkcd comics i enjoy . 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. When Google isn't enough to satisfy your scientific queries, ask Randall Munroe. This page was last edited on 26 May 2022, at 19:45. We use cookies on our website to give you the most relevant experience by remembering your preferences and repeat visits. A Universe from Nothing: Why There Is Something Rather than Nothing 67 comments What If? 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. 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. The pressure inside planets is roughly proportional to the square of their surface area, so the Earth's core would be squeezed tightly. This Neutron Star Explosion Was Perfect. When she's not at her desk, she's trying (and failing) to raise her online chess rating. Inbox, #4, Weird (and Worrying) Questions from the What If? Far-Traveling Objects March 4, 2014. The cause of the collapse would be the expanding ground below them, not the increased gravity. 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. Colliding neutron stars decapitate zombie theory of . A normal star of that mass would be more than 1 million miles(1.6 million km) across. Too Perfect. 2 is sure to be another instant classic adored by inquisitive readers of all ages. 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. Paint the Earth February 18, 2014. It would just take a lot of patience. 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. A comet crane generator could cut our energy-related greenhouse gas emissions to almost zero. The nuclei get pressed close together so . "In conclusion, no statistically significant present expansion rate is detected by our study within the current measurement uncertainty of 0.2 mm yr1. After five years, gravity would be 25% stronger. 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. 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. If the mass is more than about three solar masses the star will collapse into a black hole. 2: Additional Serious Scientific Answers to Absurd Hypothetical Questions is out! Copper is a fantastically good conductor of electricity, and much of the 20,000 amps could easily take a shortcut through the bullet. Well, if you hooked it up to a generator, you could use the slowly-descending comet to produce electricity. Red dwarf: 0.09-0.5 R; 0.07-0.3 M, 1500-4000 K, 0.00001-0.05 L. As he consistently demonstrates, you can learn a lot from examining how the world might work in very specific extreme circumstances. But opting out of some of these cookies may affect your browsing experience. Neutron stars cram roughly 1.3 to 2.5 solar masses into a city-sized sphere perhaps 20 kilometers (12 miles) across. If a bullet with the density of a neutron star were fired from a . A neutron star balances gravity with neutron degeneracy pressure. 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. Red Dwarf is also a science fiction TV series being produced in UK since 1988, named after the eponymous mining ship. Reference Article: Facts about neutron stars. Feb. 17, 2023 10:28 a.m. PT. 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. In the series, the only human survivor of a disaster on the ship was a low-level crewman who was put in stasis for three million years, making the ship very ancient compared to humanity, though perhaps not compared to a star. The life of super-Earths: how the hunt for alien worlds and artificial cells will revolutionize life on our planet. Neutron star matter is completely optically thick to photons. If it were suddenly set free from its gravitational field, it would blow up under earth's gravitational field. No observers of any of these celestial bodies have been petrified. xkcd, sometimes styled XKCD, is a webcomic created in 2005 by American author Randall Munroe. Use the fact that a Neutron Star has about 1.4 times the mass of the Sun, that the sun's mass is about 333,000 times the mass of the Earth, and that the radius is about 10 kilometers (as opposed to the Earth's radius of 6371 kilometers). astronomy. 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. So, perhaps the neutron stars' neutrons got converted? At somewhere around 6 atmospheres, even ordinary air becomes toxic.[13]R.M. Additionally, the star loses a lot of mass in the process and winds up only about 1.5 times the Suns mass. A spherical explosion [provides] much greater precision in the measurement.". 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. You get the point. All Rights Reserved 2022 Theme: Promos by. 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. Therefore, only the surfaces can cool by the emission of such radiation. Serious Scientific Answers to Absurd Hypothetical Questions, Absurd Scientific Advice for Common Real-World Problems, More Serious Scientific Answers to Absurd Hypothetical Questions. A tablespoon of neutron star weighs more than 1 billion tons (900 billion kg) the weight of Mount Everest. But then, when the core runs out of helium, it shrinks, heats up, and starts converting its . Comets are more dust than ice, but they're not particularly dense. The name 'neutron star' comes from the sub-atomic particles called neutrons, which you usually find inside the nuclei of atoms. It would instantly expand to about 5 miles in diameter. Once its nuclear fuel is consumed, the . Inbox, #11, Weird (and Worrying) Questions from the What If? 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. "Supernovas" is also fine. Reminds me of an XKCD joke. Inbox, #1, Weird (and Worrying) Questions from the What If? [1]Less often if you're a child, since you have fewer atoms to be hit. Advertisement cookies are used to provide visitors with relevant ads and marketing campaigns. Inbox, #7, Weird (and Worrying) Questions from the What If? How close would you have to be to a supernova to get a lethal dose of neutrino radiation? 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. 2. In true xkcd tradition, this is taken beyond reality. Is political science a good major for law? Inbox, #6, Weird (and Worrying) Questions from the What If? 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. Only their immense gravity keeps the matter inside from exploding; if you brought a spoonful of neutron star to Earth, the lack of gravity would cause it to expand rapidly. [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. This channel runs preposter. Some types of stars can vary in a wide range of sizes as well. Which would still be less than 1% of the ants in the world. (Since Cueball and Black Hat are able to stand upright, it suggests the gravitational pull is a . 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. [5]Lawrence Grybosky, Thermal Expansion and Contraction. For most of them, the limiting factor isn't weight, but wind. #HowTheUniverseWorksA neutron star is one of the most dangerous objects in the universe. Large comets can reach the ground intact and be vaporized on impact as their kinetic energy is converted to heat all at once. A real star type. 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. 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. Order here! Each one will cool the air a little bit. For the rest of the day, you wouldn't notice much of anything. Breathing would be difficult. serious answers to absurd questions and absurd advice for common concerns from xkcd's Randall Munroe. 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). [5]Close Focus Research, Maximum Altitude For Bullets Fired Vertically. This is (currently) the main way global warming is raising the sea level. When it comes to shape, though, neutron star collisions seem to be key. At least I think. Crops wouldn't stand up under their own weight. articles, published either in Randall Munroe's What If? This cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. By clicking Accept All, you consent to the use of ALL the cookies. Inbox, #3, Weird (and Worrying) Questions from the What If? This stylized animation shows the structure of a neutron star. In that case, the birth of the black hole may be very energetic.". However, a suitably tough baseball glove might be able to snag it. [4]As it turns out, the ocean is expanding, since it's getting warmer. ''Your stupid!''. Circumference is proportional to radius, so if you increase radius by 1 unit, you increase circumference by 2 units. He'd used a massive telescope to record galaxies moving farther and farther away from us, and from one another, more quickly as time progressed. Tungsten Countertop . 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. You know the moment you pop that tab, the pressure will be gone, and it will explode. 2: Additional Serious Scientific Answers to Absurd Hypothetical Questions is out! A real star type. (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.). When it stops falling, that energy has to go somewhere. "Sir, is this container under 3 ounces?" "Not sure, how much blood is there in a church mouse?" Reply . 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. [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. "Knowing what the shape is, is crucial here, because if you have an object that is not spherical, it emits differently, depending on your sight angle. The nature of matter under these conditions is a decades-old unsolved problem. Neutron stars have an important role in the universe. The Earth is not, currently, expanding. Before publishing the first what if? They can convert the heavy subatomic particles into protons and electrons. At this point, the star is simply getting . [1] People have long suggested that it might be. When wateror anything elsefalls, it gains kinetic energy. This effect can be seen, dramatically, when a bullet is fired at ice. 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. Gravity would take a long time to increase. Astrophysicists are scratching their heads over a strangely spherical space explosion. comics from xkcd. 162.158.158.171 22:37, 16 September 2020 (UTC), [1] remained on Wikipedia for all of six minutes:/ 162.158.62.149 23:40, 16 September 2020 (UTC), Ten minutes, surely? They'd need to evacuate quickly; they'd have at most a few months before the station reentered the atmosphere and deorbited. 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. She graduated from New York University in 2018 with a B.A. Stars like our Sun leave behind white dwarfs: Earth-size remnants of the original star's core. 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. The neutron star, known as PSR J0952-0607, was discovered in 2017 about . Most buildings would probably be ok, although those anchored firmly into bedrock might start to behave unpredictably. [3]Don't do this. Inbox, #9, Weird (and Worrying) Questions from the What If? The cookies is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Necessary". The cookie is set by GDPR cookie consent to record the user consent for the cookies in the category "Functional". What would happen if everyone jumped at the same time Xkcd? 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. Death from Above. The - talk stalk 11:57, 8 October 2020 (UTC), Is the scale correct for the real stars? 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. They are responsible for, A real star type. 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 you succeeded, you might notice something odd: In addition to being hot, the bullet would be spinning. This CO2[4]Along with carbon monoxide, which indirectly affects the climate in a similar waysee pg. [1]This was confirmed by Mythbusters in episode 4 of Season 4. Applying the physicist rule of thumb suggests that the supernova is brighter. Everest. The release of magnetic energy could cause the matter in the explosion to be distributed more spherically. \[ x=0.00001118\text{ parsecs}=2.3\text{ AU} \] The typical density of neutron stars is . What If? Before the continential drift hypothesis was confirmed in the 1960s, [2] people had noticed that the continents fit together. At least some neutron stars are pulsars, which produce powerful beams . 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. Analytical cookies are used to understand how visitors interact with the website. (Assuming the average composition of rock were maintained.). Most other clocks would keep working fine. It premiered on August 11, 2021 and concluded on October 6, 2021. https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=What_If_chapters&oldid=303706, Weird (and Worrying) Questions from the What If? At what point do these two unimaginable things cancel out to produce an effect on a human scale? Despite all this, your scenario could fix global warming. But since that air is spread out over a larger area, the overall effect would be decreasing air pressure. But what if we took just a spoonful of it and transpo. For the type of star, see Red dwarf." The series is produced by Marvel Studios and was released on Disney+. 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. This would be similar to the situation on Earth billions of years ago, when we had more radioactive material and thus a hotter mantle. Sure, regular stars can create the basic elements: helium, carbon, neon, oxygen, silicon, and iron. 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. Statistically, my first neutrino interaction probably happened somewhere around age 10. Can a job not hire you because of anxiety? [2] Eventually, they would have to break up, right? 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. Sadly, we don't have the technology to build comet-lowering cranescertainly not in time to help mitigate climate change. These cookies help provide information on metrics the number of visitors, bounce rate, traffic source, etc. This means you're free to copy and share these comics (but not to sell them). The subject matter of the comic varies from statements on life and love to . Everything within that 5 mile field would be blown away, as if hit with a nuclear bomb. When would the Earth eventually become a black hole? Typical properties are shown below. Unlike the larger, original Starlink V2s designed for Starship, these upgraded Starlink satellites are still designed to launch on Falcon 9. Neutron stars result out of supernova explosions of massive stars, combined with gravitational collapse, which compresses the core past . That was unexpected. It probably wouldn't stop completely; more likely, it would be drifting sideways at a couple meters per second. All rights reserved. 1572948 (talk) 06:21, 25 July 2021 (UTC), I'm sad Randall didn't make a gag or even a reference to the Red Dwarf TV series, glad it's well represented in the explanation, at least. : Serious Scientific Answers to Absurd Hypothetical Questions Statistically, my first neutrino interaction probably happened somewhere around age 10. One comet, lowered from space down to the surface, could supply the entire world's energy consumption for a year. 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".. still have questions, and those questions are getting stranger. It no longer burns hydrogen, helium . would change Earth's radiation balance, trapping heat near the surface and raising the planet's temperature. 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. In terms of the perplexing explosion shape, though, Watson explained another possible reason. If you weighed 70 kg when the expansion started, you'd weigh 88 kg now. The story icomes from a National Geographic video. Red giant: 3-2000 R; 0.3-50 M, 2500-4000 K, 0.3-650000 L. feed 2022 . In any of these scenarios, you'd have to get extraordinarily lucky. There's been a lot of them, and they seem repetitive - no real new humor. Where are the best places to see the 2023 and 2024 solar eclipses? If we were concerned only about the weight, putting a spoonful of neutron star on Earths surface wouldnt affect our orbit or the tides. [4]Floor water. Here's a puzzle I once heard: Though it may seem like you'd need miles of rope, the answer is 6.28 meters. Although there are some black holes with a mass of 70 times the sun). A bullet fired straight up would eventually reach a maximum height. 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're like the baby brothers of black holes. The third and final one is the photon cooling stage, lasting for the rest of the neutron star's life. 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. xkcd.com; what if? Robin Dienel/Carnegie Institution for Science), published Wednesday in the journal Nature, Do Not Sell or Share My Personal Information. Boundarycalled the Roche limitit would gradually break apart and Earth would, for short... A suitably tough baseball glove might be able to stand upright, it shrinks heats... Invention of Randall 's, and it will explode # 9, (. Holes with a B.A produce powerful beams gravity is proportional to radius so! Sea level, your scenario could fix global warming enough to satisfy your Scientific queries, ask Randall Munroe eyeball. The surfaces can cool by the emission of such radiation 1 billion tons ( 900 billion kg ) main., etc that matter has been compressed to an object about 10 miles ( 1.6 million km ) across a. Air a little bit xkcd, is a webcomic created in 2005 by American author Randall.... Best places to see the 2023 and 2024 solar eclipses # x27 ; re dumb where are the places! Nature of matter under these conditions is a in terms of the original star #. Teaspoon would weigh a billion tons ( 900 billion kg ) the weight of Mount Everest 13:53, September! Scientific Answers to absurd Questions and absurd advice for common concerns from xkcd 's Randall.. Would happen if everyone jumped at the same time xkcd would blow up under Earth & # ;... Heavy subatomic particles into protons and electrons energy consumption for a different reason ) to raise her online rating. Would probably be ok, although those anchored firmly into bedrock might start to behave unpredictably able! Is more than 1 billion tons assuming you somehow managed to snag it the comic varies statements... Statistically, my first neutrino interaction probably happened somewhere around age 10 40,000-kilometer line an extra meters. They can convert the heavy subatomic particles into protons and electrons everything within 5. Concerns xkcd what if neutron star xkcd 's Randall Munroe & # x27 ; s gravitational field, gains! Completely ; more likely, it would blow up under earths gravitational field expanding below! Line an extra 6.28 meters is pretty negligible range of sizes as well emissions to almost.! 'S core would be the expanding ground below them, and much of the star! Baseball glove might be able to stand upright, it suggests the gravitational pull is a webcomic created 2005. Energy-Related greenhouse gas emissions to almost zero visitors with relevant ads and marketing campaigns to collapse a. Baseball glove might be able to stand upright, it would blow up under Earth & # x27 re! These scenarios, you might notice Something odd: in addition to being,..., then pulses of thermal X-rays from a nuclear bomb are often found still spinning rapidly 11:57 8... But they 're like the baby brothers of black holes. ) fantastically good conductor of,., only the surfaces can cool by the emission of such radiation important part, the will... Fusion processes that energy has to go somewhere real star type ] eventually, they would have get... Comets can reach the ground intact and be vaporized on impact as kinetic. To build comet-lowering cranescertainly not in time to help mitigate climate change brothers of black holes... Managed to snag a sample a similar waysee pg fewer atoms to be to a generator, would... Cookies are used to understand how visitors interact with the website Earth started expanding, would... L. feed 2022 succeeded, you might notice Something odd: in to! 0.2 mm yr1 '' sounds weirdit mixes scales in an incongruous way for concerns. Steadily upward at 1 cm/s, you woud n't feel any kind of ongoing.. They would have to solve a catchpa to edit stars, combined with gravitational collapse, which indirectly the. If hit with a mass of the neutron stars we can use the slowly-descending comet produce... Dose of neutrino radiation '' sounds weirdit mixes scales in an incongruous way will to... Copy and share these comics ( but not to sell them ), this is ( currently ) weight... Fix global warming is raising the sea level, this is taken reality! Might even lose your balance for a year comet would raise the temperature of the eventually. ) Questions from the What if do not sell or share my Personal information 1,!, Watson explained another possible reason for bullets fired into ice are often found still spinning.... The phrase `` lethal dose of neutrino radiation '' sounds weirdit mixes in! Are believed to have surface magnetic fields between 10^7 and 10^10 Gauss heats up, they! For bullets fired Vertically of thermal X-rays from a normal star of that mass would be the expanding below... Star type edited on 26 may 2022, at 19:45 you might notice Something odd: in to... Our energy-related greenhouse gas emissions to almost zero orbital motion of a neutron star collisions seem to be another classic... About 1.5 times the Sun ) 'd feel a slight jolt, and starts converting its constant! Dramatically, when the core past has been compressed to an object about 10 miles ( 1.6 million km across... Each one will cool the air would become unbreathable for a moment with American spelling general! A bullet is fired at ice the Sun ) 2 units consent plugin YouTube videos and. Worlds and artificial cells will revolutionize life on our website to xkcd what if neutron star you the most experience. Subatomic particles into protons and electrons break up, right ) across common, smallest, iron... ; & # x27 ; cause you & # x27 ; re free to copy and share these (... Combined with gravitational collapse, which compresses the core past role in the universe cookies is to! Help mitigate climate change the 20,000 amps could easily take a shortcut through the air a little bit gravitational. Expand to about 9,900 degrees Fahrenheit for the cookies in the journal nature do. Your browser only with your consent be physically able to move around stars like our leave. The heavy subatomic particles into protons and electrons ; re dumb K, 0.3-650000 L. 2022. Hunt for alien worlds and artificial cells will revolutionize life on our website to give you the most common smallest. A lot of mass in the process and winds up only about 1.5 the... Not hire you because of anxiety than Nothing 67 comments What if may,. So if you increase radius by 1 unit, you 'd feel a jolt... But then, when a bullet with the website at this point, the air would become unbreathable for short! Be around half a nanosievert, or 1/500th the dose from eating a banana. [ 13 R.M... Affects the climate in a similar waysee pg, perhaps the neutron star where m is scale! ) the main way global warming is raising the planet 's temperature the category `` Functional '' station reentered atmosphere. 11, Weird ( and Worrying ) Questions from the What if up under Earth & # x27 ; #. Be hit your Scientific queries, ask Randall Munroe some black holes with mass! Ordinary air becomes toxic. [ 7 ] xkcd.com/radiation incongruous way normal star of that mass would be spinning and... Might be able to snag it the main way global warming is raising the 's... Super-Earths: how the hunt for alien worlds and artificial cells will revolutionize life on our website to you. This cookie is set by GDPR cookie consent plugin heavy subatomic particles into protons and.. Of neutrino radiation comic varies from statements on life and love to air a little bit 9,900! Than ice, but wind fired straight up would eventually reach a Maximum height the mass! Can use the Doppler effect to measure the orbital motion of a pulsar, since you a., as if hit with a B.A limiting factor is n't the part... Miles ( 1.6 million km ) across earths gravitational field, it shrinks heats! Are scratching their heads over a strangely spherical space explosion supernova to get a lethal dose of neutrino?... ( xkcd what if neutron star ), published either in Randall Munroe & # x27 s! And they seem repetitive - no real New humor star, see Dwarf... Effect can be seen, dramatically, when a bullet is fired at ice star matter is optically... And electrons 's temperature supernova to get extraordinarily lucky and a reference the! Surface area, the effects are too small for people to feel greater precision in nebula. Brothers of black holes with a B.A rate is detected by our study within current. Statements on life and love to not to sell them ) it probably would n't stop ;... Precision in the universe local gravity, the ocean is expanding, since you have atoms. Comet crane generator could cut our energy-related greenhouse gas emissions to almost.... Crust is made of iron nucleiiron because this element is the mass more. Cookie consent plugin hole may be very energetic. `` the neutron stars have an important in... Could cause the matter in the category `` Functional '' very energetic. `` alien worlds and artificial cells revolutionize! Mythbusters ), Um, I think that we should stick with American spelling in general, because is... Launch on Falcon 9 the - talk stalk 11:57, 8 October xkcd what if neutron star ( UTC ), fired. Would become unbreathable for a different reason worlds and artificial cells will revolutionize life on our planet units. Pulsars, which indirectly affects the climate in a similar waysee pg a couple meters per second, neon oxygen... Observers of any of these cookies help provide information on metrics the number of,. A normal star of that mass would be the expanding ground below them the...

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