What would happen if a rouge neutron star were to pass through our solar system, specifically near earth?
I understand the density of neutron matter is ridiculous, like a cubic inch potentially weighing billions of tons due to high compression of orbital electrons in atoms during the end of a star’s life. So what would the range of danger zone be from the surface of such an object? How close would it have to get to Earth theoretically before it’s immense radiation, gravimetric properties, and/or magnetic field have a direct effect on us? And for fun…(if it is plausible or not) what if a small chunk of neutron matter (say the size of a golf ball) collided into land in central North America…what would the effects be on the physical mass of the earth surrounding it, and it’s danger to us?
Neutron star matter is only stable under neutron star gravity conditions, so a small bit of neuton star material would very rapidly ‘explode’ if it was removed from the neutron star – it would much prefer to be in the state of normal matter – it’s only the extreme gravitation of the neutron star that keeps matter at nuclear density – so that as soon as you remove a chip of the neutron star it would very rapidly (say microsecond timescale or probably considerably faster) change to ‘normal’ matter. It’s only the enormous gravitational force of the neutron matter that’s keeping it in that form, and that will need a lot more than a golf ball sized bit to remain stable long enough to hit Earth.
Golfing with a neutron
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