Timeline for How much damage would a cupful of neutron star matter do to the Earth?
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9 events
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| Apr 23, 2019 at 22:15 | comment | added | Jetpack | @PhilFrost, Wolfram Alpha can do the math in cups, at least in my locale: wolframalpha.com/input/?i=(density+of+neutronium+*+1+cup+*+acceleration+due+to+gravity)+%2F+(cup%5E(1%2F3)%5E2)+in+MPa. The answer is 2.4E11 MPa. | |
| Apr 21, 2019 at 9:25 | comment | added | John Dvorak | I have no trouble believing that a magically bound cupful of neutronium would carve a significant amount of tiny tunnels through Earth before stopping in the core. But there's no chance those tunnels would last any amount of time. And they certainly wouldn't be wide enough to be seen from space even if the top layer remained intact. Not to mention there is no proposed mechanism to turn the untouched surface a dull yellow color. No Swiss cheese appearance. Sorry. | |
| Apr 20, 2019 at 19:01 | comment | added | Phil Frost | Oops, that should be "only" 7e10 MPa. Still, even our strongest materials might as well be fluids. Newton's approximation finds it could penetrate 1.234e12 meters. Unfortunately gravity pulls it back after passing the core. | |
| Apr 20, 2019 at 18:34 | comment | added | Phil Frost | @aleppke do the math: a magically bound teaspoon-sized lump of neutronium on Earth's surface exerts a pressure of about 3e13 MPa, about nine orders of magnitude more than the strongest materials known to man. "Effortless" is exactly how it would fall. | |
| Apr 19, 2019 at 21:41 | comment | added | aleppke | I doubt it would fall effortlessly. Assuming the neutron star matter holds its shape like a rock (which is disputable), it has no mechanism to displace the matter in its path before it gets there. That means it would have to push its way through the planet, which will cause friction and slow it down. And if it "only" has the weight of a mountain, I don't think its gravity would be enough to pull it all the way to the Earth's core, let alone out the other side. | |
| Apr 19, 2019 at 5:01 | comment | added | Ville Niemi | Yes, the quote assumes that the piece of matter is solid and stays so. This is not what would actually happen, Sagan was just making a point about the density. | |
| Apr 19, 2019 at 2:25 | comment | added | forest | -1 I believe this is incorrect. If you "let it go", the lack of sufficient gravity holding the mass together would cause it to explosively expand. | |
| Apr 19, 2019 at 1:08 | comment | added | StephenG - Help Ukraine | A quote from Sagan's "Cosmos" is a pretty good bet to get an upvote from me. :) | |
| Apr 19, 2019 at 1:05 | history | answered | Mazura | CC BY-SA 4.0 |