3 ms·
After all, is there anything better to create new elements than a hot, dense neutron soup?
by MayeulC 4y ago
After all, is there anything better to create new elements than a hot, dense neutron soup?
- short_sells_poo 4y agoI'm always fascinated by the sheer and unfathomable amounts of energy that is thrown around in these events. Just thinking about the fact that a single spoonful of neutron star matter contains more mass than Mount Everest fills me with wonder about the world we live in.
- galangalalgol 4y agoWhat happens whena tablespoon of neutron soup gets thrown out of the well of a neutron star? Does it suddenly expand to the size of everest? Where do the electrons come from?
- heavyset_go 4y agoI'd imagine some of the energy and degenerate matter consisting of neutrons would convert to protons and electrons, and nucleosynthesis would take place to form elements. I have no idea, though, but I'm pretty sure I watched a video about this.
- caf 4y agoIn terms of "where do the electrons come from", an ordinary neutron in free space has a half-life of about 10 minutes, decaying through beta decay which produces a proton, an electron and a neutrino.
- galangalalgol 4y agoThat sounds fairly energetic... So after 10min you'd have some odd mix of heavy elements probably approaching a decent fraction of the volume of everest. Half the volume of everest x (densityofgranite / densityoflead) That kind of expansion rate has to rival any explosion imaginable.
- ajross 4y agoIt's essentially a giant atomic nucleus, so absent a star's worth of gravity holding it together it's going to decay rapidly into stable isotopes. So essentially it would act more or less the same as a huge fission bomb of the same mass.