Neutron stars boggle the mind

Date:   7/10/2012 3:17:41 PM ( 12 y ago)

There are rumours of a hidden neutron star out beyond Pluto.

These stars are only about 10 miles across, typically. Just 10 miles!!

They form when a gigantic star, one that would fit 10,000 of our Suns into it, collapses. Keep in mind that the Earth is a tiny speck compared to the Sun.

Remember the Big Bang? Oh ya, you weren't there... I was, and EVERYTHING in the universe collapsed into the size of a pinhead. So something the size of 10,000 of our Suns collapsing into a neutron star just 10 miles across isn't so startling.... NOT.


Picture comparing the Sun to supergiant stars:
http://tinyurl.com/6w2e28y


{note the tiny Sun dot in the upper left corner!!}

Sun's size compared to Earth:
http://tinyurl.com/7zzkcyl



Okay, so the Neutron star is out there, hiding in the Kuiper belt. If you were to come near the neutron star, and somehow be at one meter above the surface and then start to fall, it's gravity is so great that you would be travelling at 5 million miles an hour within a millisecond.

Things weigh more on a Neutron star - one teaspoonfull of a Neutron star weighs the same as 900 Pyramids of Giza. A hockey puck sized dish could contain all the cities of our modern Earth [crushed up of course].

But for those magnanimous reasons, there cannot really be one hiding out beyond Pluto, it would just suck that ol' Kuiper Belt up so tight it would choke off the solar system!!

No, just kidding. I have no idea what it would mean to have a Neutron star so close to our Solar System. I just wanted to remind everyone that there are things in this Universe that boggle the mind, and that if you think you know it all and are feeling smug about your cozy little life, give your head a shake and go try to do some good in this world while there is still time.



 

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