back to article Interstellar Fight Club: Watch neutron star tear Goliath a new hole

Ever wanted to see two super-dense neutron stars rip each other apart in a mega-annihilation that leaves nothing behind but a gaping black hole? Now you can, after NASA put together a supercomputer simulation of just such an event in our universe. Youtube video A neutron star is the compressed core left behind when a huge …

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  1. stucs201

    Didn't Muse write a song about this?

    Although they failed in writing another song about the outcome, its just a normal sized black hole, not a supermassive one.

  2. Eradicate all BB entrants

    Pah, as anyone who has .....

    ..... Universe Sandbox will know this is child's play, we can throw galaxies at each other :D

    1. stucs201

      Re: Pah, as anyone who has .....

      That's new to me...

      ...so much for the important productive things I was going to do this evening.

      1. Eradicate all BB entrants

        Re: Pah, as anyone who has .....

        What could be more important or productive than increasing the gravitational mass of Sol and watching as it sucks the entire solar system into itself?

  3. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    What a pair ...

    ... of degenerates

  4. Grikath

    Just wondering...

    Wouldn't the sheer pressure from that gamma ray blast just outside the event horizon of that newly formed black hole dissipate most of the remaining matter around it? The local energy densities would after all be several shades of Impressive.

    1. Tom 7

      Re: Just wondering...

      and doesnt time dilation mean that the gamma ray blast is more ... well infra red?

      Not sure if University of Chicago flash takes it into account...

      Mind you I'm suffering time dilation just working my way round the whole damn thing...

      1. Annihilator
        Boffin

        Re: Just wondering...

        "and doesnt time dilation mean that the gamma ray blast is more ... well infra red?"

        Not time dilation, red-shifted due to the events moving away from us. And it's more x-ray that they reach us in.

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Just wondering...

      The gamma ray burst propogates along the spin axis of the brand new bouncing bady black hole; the accretion disk is in orbit around its equator.

  5. Gene Cash Silver badge
    Stop

    That neutron star sucks almost as much as that youtube player skin thing.

  6. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Does anyone know what the music is ....

    ... I think I might try to get a recoding. Lovely stuff.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Does anyone know what the music is ....

      Not sure but certainly sounds a bit like Philip Glass.

  7. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Time scale?

    I'm presuming it's realtime, like as in this would be what it would look like if you were there. (And weren't immediately killed by the magnetic fields squashing the electron clouds around your atoms and were looking at it through pretty thick shades etc etc.) The thought (and sight) of multiple solar masses worth of matter throwing itself around over distances of a few (dozen) kilometres so fast that you need slow motion video to get any idea of what just happened leaves my mind plenty boggled. After a lifetime of a few billion years (okay maybe not quite so long for stars big enough to make neutron stars but you get the point).

    Much wow.

    1. Scroticus Canis
      Alien

      Re: Time scale?

      Nope it's meant to be milliseconds long - at 7 ms small one pops, at 13 ms black hole collapse. Pity they didn't visualise the gamma burst or gravity wave generation as well.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: Time scale?

        Thanks for the info. I somehow suspected as much. And I think you get my point - usually one would expect that stellar events need to be sped up to be visible and/or interesting, not slowed down thousand-fold or more.

      2. Destroy All Monsters Silver badge
        Devil

        Re: Time scale?

        gravity wave generation

        That kind of gravity wave sure is gonna put cellulitis on your arse!

  8. Scroticus Canis
    Boffin

    "A neutron star is the core left when star 8 - 30 times larger than our Sun ignites" - ¿Que?

    Wouldn't be a star if it hadn't already ignited. Think you mean goes supernova which is when the core collapses to a neutron degenerate state (a.k.a neutron star) and the rest gets blown away.

    A 30 solar mass star has a main sequence life of ±11 million years before exhausting it core fuels and does a type II supernova.

    (Sorry had to shorten the quoted article text considerably to get a title that fits).

  9. Stevie

    Bah!

    So, not real science then, just another simulation.

    Scientists! Stop farking about making fancy youtube movies and deliver us a working star drive so we can go and start looking for the real thing!

    1. Steven Roper

      But...

      They have to make fancy youtube movies to keep the public interested so they convince politicians to keep funnelling money into the research that will eventually make your star drive possible.

      No pretty pictures = no public interest; no public interest = no money; no money = no research; no research = no star drive. Capiche?

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: But...

        Making fancy youtube videos takes away from time doing actual research...

      2. Destroy All Monsters Silver badge
        Pirate

        Re: But...

        HAH! Captain Harlock got his Arkadia built even with Earth parliament in complete hedonistic dissolution in the face of the threat of alien invasion, and mainly bent of capturing and publicly executing him.

        Pirate-flagged Libertarianism FTW!

  10. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Say it quickly:

    Knock knock. Who's there? Knock knock. Who's there? Knock knock. Who's there? (repeat...) Knock knock. Who's there? Philip Glass.

  11. Destroy All Monsters Silver badge
    Holmes

    DAT GAS!

    I'm sure that cloud of gaseous neutronium is more harmful than diesel engine exhaust fumes or asbestos.

  12. JCitizen
    Terminator

    So - you feeling lucky punk?

    I know what your thinking - did my neutron stars go off? Well I got a gamma ray burster here that could just blow the whole face of your planet off!! Feeling lucky punk! HA!

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