Nuclear pasta in neutron stars may be the strongest material in the universe

Post by JumpCrisscross » Sat, Sep 15, 2018, 9:21 PM UTC

ericfrenkiel wrote: post #30

BurningFrog wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Hard" science fiction...

Yes, “hard” scifi is a sub-genre that adheres to physics as much as we know it to be true - no faster-than-light travel, for instance. Arthur C. Clarke and his 2001 series as well as Nivens and his Ringworld series would be good examples, whereas Dan Simmons and his Hyperion Cantos trilogy, while extremely well-written, wouldn’t qualify.

Post by [deleted] » Sat, Sep 15, 2018, 9:30 PM UTC

whatshisface wrote: post #23

beesKneesMan wrote: post #15

At trillions of times the mass of water, I'd have to suspect that it has its own gravity. A one kilometer cube starts to approach earth mass, if you just ballpark values based on the orders of magnitude relative to water.

Every object has its own gravity, no matter the shape or size[0]. This is taken advantage of in sensitive experiments that measure the gravitational attraction between human-scale objects[1]. The experiments are done to determine Newton's constant, G, the constant governing the strength of gravity. [0] Even massless particles like photons have gravity, as it's actually energy that bends space and not rest mass. [1] h…

Post by andrepd » Sat, Sep 15, 2018, 9:38 PM UTC

endymi0n wrote: post #18

In a true Randall Munroe "What if?" fashion, I'd be interested if this stuff would be stable enough to hold together on its own or if it needs the absolutely extreme gravity and pressure around it to stick together and would fall apart otherwise. So if a teaspoon of Nuclear Neutron Pasta would really end up somewhere on a meadow here on Earth, what would happen?

Post by captain0bvious » Sat, Sep 15, 2018, 9:40 PM UTC

whatshisface wrote: post #23

beesKneesMan wrote: post #15

At trillions of times the mass of water, I'd have to suspect that it has its own gravity. A one kilometer cube starts to approach earth mass, if you just ballpark values based on the orders of magnitude relative to water.

Every object has its own gravity, no matter the shape or size[0]. This is taken advantage of in sensitive experiments that measure the gravitational attraction between human-scale objects[1]. The experiments are done to determine Newton's constant, G, the constant governing the strength of gravity. [0] Even massless particles like photons have gravity, as it's actually energy that bends space and not rest mass. [1] h…

Post by kilroy123 » Sat, Sep 15, 2018, 9:43 PM UTC

andrepd wrote: post #36

endymi0n wrote: post #18

In a true Randall Munroe "What if?" fashion, I'd be interested if this stuff would be stable enough to hold together on its own or if it needs the absolutely extreme gravity and pressure around it to stick together and would fall apart otherwise. So if a teaspoon of Nuclear Neutron Pasta would really end up somewhere on a meadow here on Earth, what would happen?

Nuclear pasta is a phenomenon that appears when electromagnetic repulsion and strong force are more or less on the same strength. This only happens in a relatively narrow band of (stupendously high) densities. So yes, nuclear pasta does not exist anywhere in the universe outside of a ~100m band inside neutron stars. Source: I studied this for 2 years.