• Question: If a neutron star became a googlepexian lightyears wide, How many universes could it destroy???

    Asked by Herp Derp to Miranda, James on 15 Jun 2015.
    • Photo: James Gilbert

      James Gilbert answered on 15 Jun 2015:


      I guess it would depend on how many universes there are in the first place. Unfortunately I’m trapped in this one.

    • Photo: Miranda Jackson

      Miranda Jackson answered on 15 Jun 2015:


      Neutron stars have a density very close to that of an atomic nucleus (very dense). Their size is limited by certain physical laws which say that you can only have so many of the same particle in a given amount of space. The supernova explosion which creates a neutron star blow off all the excess mass, once the core of the original star has collapsed. The neutron star that is left over has a mass about the same as the sun, and a size about the same as a reasonably big city. There is no way a neutron star could be much bigger than this.

      However, it is possible for a black hole to be much larger and more massive than an ordinary star, and these supermassive black holes are said to exist at the centres of most galaxies, including our own Milky Way. If one of these got really big, by absorbing the mass around it, it could only attract matter from this universe and not any others, and there is a maximum rate at which a black hole can absorb matter, so it might not even be possible for it to destroy even one universe.

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