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Asked by anon-106860 to Adrian, Gaia, Jim, Scott, Vicky on 10 Mar 2016.
Question: Ignoring the how, what would happen if you shot a bullet made of a bit of neutron star out of a gun on earth?
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Adrian Buzatu answered on 10 Mar 2016:
I guess the bullet would pass through the planet if it had a large speed. Neutrons are only absorbed by matter if they have a certain slow speed.
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Scott Lawrie answered on 10 Mar 2016:
Oh my goodness that’s a fabulous question, I love it! A .45-caliber bullet made of neutron star material would weigh about one BILLION tonnes, or about half the weight of all the ships in the sea (including aircraft carriers, oil tankers etc)!
Assuming the bullet stayed together (see below), that kind of mass moving at the speed-of-sound kind of speeds a bullet travels at would leave a sizable crater in the Earth. Maybe level a town? The neutrons would be going far too slow to undergo nuclear reactions in the Earth’s rock or anything, but it would still be very impressive. That’s assuming the bullet stayed together!
In reality, the bullet of neutron star material would no longer be in the gravity field of the neutron star itself, so it wouldn’t have the crushing pressure holding it together. The bullet would immediately explode in a rather titanic way long before it left the gun. That would leave a SIGNIFICANTLY larger crater than the bullet itself!
Wow. Great question 😎
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