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Quark Stars

Posted by michael on from the stranger-than-we-can-imagine dept.

BigGar' writes "Astronomers seem to have discovered a new type of star. It would lie between a neutron star and and a black hole in the hierarchy of stars and consist of quark matter. Further observations with the Chandra X-ray telescope will be needed to confirm the results."

8 of 236 comments (clear)

  1. Analogies by tcd004 · · Score: 4, Funny

    "Neutron stars are the vestiges of immense supernova explosions, collapsed stars with extremely compact cores, denser than all known objects except black holes. A teaspoonful of a neutron star would weigh one billion tons, as much as all the cars and trucks on Earth."

    That would be one impressive teaspoon.

    Tall, Blonde and Weaponized
    tcd004

    1. Re:Analogies by Alsee · · Score: 4, Funny

      That would be one impressive teaspoon.

      There is no spoon.

      -

      --
      - - You can't take something off the Internet! That's like trying to take pee out of a swimming pool.
  2. yeah, ok by doooras · · Score: 3, Funny

    I guess Armin Shimmerman was pretty cool, but I don't think he's really a star... Or was that a different kind of Quark, that doesn't try selling self-sealing stembolts...

  3. I'll say it with a song by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

    An All-Linux Think Tank
    -----
    Quark Sing-a-long Written by Lynda Williams
    For Jefferson National Lab
    Bring Our Daughters to Work Day.
    (refrain)

    Up, Down, Charm, Strange, Top and Bottom!
    The World is made up of Quarks and Leptons!
    Up, Down, Charm, Strange,Top and Bottom!
    Yum! Yum!

    Quarks come in six flavors
    They live in families of two.
    Up Down, Charm Strange, Top and Bottom!
    They come in anti-flavors too!

    Each family makes a generation
    between which is a mass gap.
    The up quark is the lightest and the top quark
    is the most fat!

    The second and third generations
    do not live for very long.
    That's why everything in the Universe
    is made up of Ups and Downs!

    (refrain)

    Quarks carry a color charge.
    They come in red, green and blue.
    You'll never see a quark all by itself
    cuz they stick together with a strong force glue.

    Quarks carry electric charge.
    A fraction of electricity.
    Quarks combine together so the total charge
    is a multiple of unity!

    An up, up down makes a proton for a total charge of plus one.
    A down, up, down makes a DUD neutron!

    Physics is so much YUM YUM PHUN!

    (refrain)

    copyright 1999 Lynda Williams
    http://www.entersci.com/cosmic/quarkl.htm

  4. Sounds cool... by Jugalator · · Score: 3, Funny

    Or as Mr D. Vader would put it:

    If you only new the power of the quark side...

    --
    Beware: In C++, your friends can see your privates!
  5. New Star Trek material! by Kwirq · · Score: 2, Funny
    Whereas before the coolest material they could build stuff out of in Star Trek was Neutronium (Neutron Star matter), such as the hull of the Planet Killer in the old series episode "The Doomsday Machine", know they can build stuff out of quarkonium!! Whee.

    I'll go to bed now..

  6. Re:I thought black holes didn't exist anymore... by damien_kane · · Score: 2, Funny

    From said story:
    It seems that there's a growing movement that doubts the existence of black holes

    Oh... black holes exist... it's the growing movement, that's the myth.

  7. Re:And a 4th dimension by Darby · · Score: 2, Funny

    Physicians say they can't account for all the enrgy and mass that are beeing sucked into a black hole.

    Strangely enough, neither can dentists or optometrists.