Comic Discussion > QUESTIONABLE CONTENT
WCDT strips 4371-4375 (Oct 12th to Oct 16th 2020)
Is it cold in here?:
--- Quote from: Mr_Rose on 15 Oct 2020, 12:41 ---
--- Quote from: sitnspin on 15 Oct 2020, 12:04 ---"Waste product" is an inaccurate description. Stars fuse hydrogen until they run out of it, then they start fusing helium, and then heavier and heavier elements until they get to iron. After that they explode. Or collapse, it they are massive enough.
--- End quote ---
Only little stars ‘just’ collapse. The really big ones explode and collapse at once. Or collapse so fast they ‘bounce’ hard enough to count as an explosion too, it’s not 100% clear.
--- End quote ---
Not just a kinematic bounce. The neutrino flux is so DocSmithianly high that it heats up and blows off the outer layers.
Mr_Rose:
--- Quote from: Is it cold in here? on 16 Oct 2020, 15:13 ---
--- Quote from: Mr_Rose on 15 Oct 2020, 12:41 ---
--- Quote from: sitnspin on 15 Oct 2020, 12:04 ---"Waste product" is an inaccurate description. Stars fuse hydrogen until they run out of it, then they start fusing helium, and then heavier and heavier elements until they get to iron. After that they explode. Or collapse, it they are massive enough.
--- End quote ---
Only little stars ‘just’ collapse. The really big ones explode and collapse at once. Or collapse so fast they ‘bounce’ hard enough to count as an explosion too, it’s not 100% clear.
--- End quote ---
Not just a kinematic bounce. The neutrino flux is so DocSmithianly high that it heats up and blows off the outer layers.
--- End quote ---
Yeah, ain’t that a kicker; neutrinos, the particles in the Standard Model least-likely-to-interact with anything (at all, ever), abound in such numbers that they can propel regular baryonic matter at near-light speeds. Consider that since you started reading this sentence a couple trillion of them already passed through you without you (or any part of you) noticing…
Gyrre:
--- Quote from: Thrudd on 16 Oct 2020, 07:45 ---
--- Quote from: snubnose on 16 Oct 2020, 02:54 ---
--- Quote from: Thrudd on 15 Oct 2020, 06:20 ---We are Star stuff
Stars digest hydrogen and the heavier elements are a waste product of said digestive process.
So the stuff we are all made up of is just poop. That explains a lot. :grumpypuss:
--- End quote ---
Thats a pretty absurd description of fusion, assigning very inapporpiate comparisons to the whole process.
For example, this "poop" is more complex than the very simple hydrogen.
Also, out main chemical compound is water, which in turn contains a lot of hydrogen, and the rest of us of course also contains a lot of hydrogen.
--- End quote ---
Stepping away from the meme zone which is definitely not serious and tends to be very silly.
I think you meant Helium. Hydrogen is the base element food/fuel for a star.
Also the fusion process within stars may not be as simple as once thought - Fuse a pair of hydrogen atoms and make helium and possibly some loose neutrons.
Nothing is all that simple in this universe and in the high pressure environment that is a stellar core things get WEIRD. It has now been postulated that things are a bit more messy on the subatomic scale. [lots of weird physics here - okay physics is already weird its just that this stuff is weirder] resulting in heavier elements that sometimes percolate up from that cauldron of quasi-particles resulting in the G K M class star spectra.
--- End quote ---
Sounds like we need to make a solar bathysphere, load it up with the world's career politicians and drop it in the sun so they can describe what they see. Then make another one, load it up with the billionaires, and have them do the same.
(click to show/hide)I'm perfectly aware of what they'd be getting assigned to. It's the matter of getting them all to do something actually useful for once.
EDIT: fixing formatting.
hedgie:
Hmm. I'm liking the "reverse-Hunger Games" idea. Every year, the top 0.1% have to fight it out to the death (no proxies, and extreme taxes on wealth transference). The winner gets to keep their shit, and all the assets of the losers are to be transferred amongst the populace.
Is it cold in here?:
Supernova factoid about neutrinos. If you were in the same system as one out as far as the orbit of Jupiter, if you were sheltering behind something the size of Jupiter to protect you from all the other effects, you would be killed by the neutrino flux.
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