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Exploding Neutron Star

Posted by michael on from the interstellar-war dept.

Mick Ohrberg writes "According to NASA News, scientists at NASA and CITA are watching a neutron star (4U 1820-30, 25,000 light years from Earth) explode. Or rather - watch an explosion happen just a few miles above the surface of this immensely dense body. What happens is that matter (mostly helium) from a companion star is by the gravity of the neutron star and collected on the surface until a layer is formed and sufficient pressure is generated. This will cause the helium to fuse into carbon and other elements, releasing enormous amounts of energy in the X-ray band. The event was caught using NASA's Rossi X-ray Timing Explorer. More details can be found here."

3 of 35 comments (clear)

  1. Really cool story. by kniLnamiJ-neB · · Score: 2, Funny

    Astronomical Phenomenae make the best /. stories. Last week there was the black hole chowing down on the star, and now we're blowing stuff up.

    --
    Windows isn't the answer... it's the question. NO is the answer!
  2. Yes, but... by Pumpernickle · · Score: 2, Funny
    This will cause the helium to fuse into carbon and other elements, releasing enormous amounts of energy in the X-ray band.

    Yes, but how much of that is diamond?
  3. Re:MOD PARENT UP - Definitions of now by Tackhead · · Score: 2, Funny
    > 2. It's Friday, August 20, 2004 at 4:30pm and you are watching Oprah. The sun explodes and (for sake of discussion) expands at the speed of light. At 4:31pm a commercial comes on and you get up to get a bag of Doritos. Fortunately for you, you've recently invented a space travel machine and your Doritos are in another Solar System. You immediately are worm-holed out of your living room. By 4:38, your television is toast, but you are fine.

    How are you "fine"?

    Best-case scenario is that the other solar system is Proxima Centauri.

    And on Proxima, you're fine at 4:38. But unless it's gonna take you until December 2008 to get your Doritos, life's really gonna suck when you go back home to watch the rest of Oprah. (Why wouldn't you go back home after getting the Doritos? It's not like you have any reason to believe Sol exploded.)

    On the other hand, compared to sitting around in Alpha Centauri to watch reruns of episodes featuring Y2K consultants desperately trying to restore their credibility, Al Gore on a debating stand, the 2000 election recounts, and 9/11... Well, maybe being vaporized at 4:39 when you get back to what was your living room is still an improvement.

    On the third hand (handjobs from Centauri chicks rule), suppose you got distracted while in the kitchen (again I with the Centauri chicks). Four years spent munching on Doritos, getting three-fisted Centauri handjobs while you laugh at the reruns from early 2000 all the way up to the hilarious surprise finale of August 20, 2004 when all those Terran assholes, yes, even that bully in third grade and that skank who dumped you in college, fry! Well hey, that sounds pretty cool. Especially if there are Centauri chicks.

    There's a hell of a universe next door. Let's go.