I find it fascinating that people often talk about science removing the magic of the Universe. And yet, science has revealed amazing, mind-boggling, alien wonders of the Universe that are far more fascinating than any anthropomorphic pantheons.<p>Is there anything in the bible, or in any religious text, that comes close to the story of a supernovae? A supermassive star putting forth unimaginable amounts of light and heat over its few million year lifespan, transmuting its component elements from Hydrogen and Helium all the way to Iron. And then creating this extremely bizarre stuff of neutron star matter during its death throes when it flashes so incredibly brightly that it can briefly outshine the entire galaxy it resides within and can be seen by the naked eye from so far away that it takes longer than the span of time that human beings have used tools for the light to travel that distance.<p>And think, every single human being alive contains within them atoms that were forged in just such an event.<p>To me that's far more awe inspiring than any origin fable.
Looks like someone has been reading Niven. That picture shows a ship built off a General Products #2 hull, and is come straight off the book "Neutron Star": <a href="http://ca.pbsstatic.com/l/41/6941/9780345336941.jpg" rel="nofollow">http://ca.pbsstatic.com/l/41/6941/9780345336941.jpg</a><p>With that hull you could fly past a neutron star and live, if you could survive the tidal forces.
Great sense of humor:<p><pre><code> > Do not stand in your cargo bay when you beam up your
> neutron star material. I cannot stress this enough.</code></pre>
<i>In case you're looking for a talking point for your next cocktail party, you might also be interested in knowing that degeneracy pressure (of electrons, rather than neutrons) are also what hold up white dwarves.</i><p>I can quite definitely state that I've never been to a party where that kind of observation would gain anyone's attention. In fact I'm picturing the audience backing away slowly, looking around for someone---anyone---else to talk to. Not sure if that's good or bad.
I love the analogies, but I got a little lost on the energy output. What kind of effect would "the energy put out by the sun in 2 or 3 seconds" have if released relatively slowly? (The half-life of neutrons is ~ 10 minutes according to the article.)
What would happen if an asteroid (say 30km) impacted a neutron star? Mind you, that rock would be larger, although much less massive. Is it possible for something like that to blast off material from the star?<p>I imagine something like a black hole feeding, the asteroid flattened into a disk and heated up, jets of x-rays from the magnetic poles of the star.
here's a more readable format:<p><a href="http://m.io9.com/5805244/what-would-a-teaspoonful-of-neutron-star-do-to-you" rel="nofollow">http://m.io9.com/5805244/what-would-a-teaspoonful-of-neutron...</a>