Supernova shoots a dying star made of metal out of Milky Way at 2M MPH

infradig 2021-08-17 03:59:36 +0000 UTC [ - ]

Note: this is the Astronomy definition of metal... There's Hydrogen, Helium and then there's metals.

gnulinux 2021-08-17 05:32:00 +0000 UTC [ - ]

Why is this definition useful in astronomy? Why can't they just say something like "non period 1 element" (NPO element) in order not to cause accidental confusion with other branches of science?

iwwr 2021-08-17 06:35:55 +0000 UTC [ - ]

Just that by volume/mass hydrogen and helium make like 99% of what's out there :)

Gravityloss 2021-08-17 12:46:31 +0000 UTC [ - ]

Good question. It's all about context, which I don't know that well. But these kind of things pop up everywhere. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Engineering_tolerance

redis_mlc 2021-08-17 15:16:57 +0000 UTC [ - ]

Some info on the word metal as used in astronomy:

https://briankoberlein.com/post/hydrogen-helium-metal/

The short answer is that the fraction of metal is so low, they don't care enough to call it something else.

pontifier 2021-08-17 08:47:36 +0000 UTC [ - ]

So I wonder if there is a black hole or neutron star headed the other way at 2M MPH.

It's a slightly terrifying thought that such objects could exist.

perl4ever 2021-08-17 18:53:42 +0000 UTC [ - ]

Is a neutron star on a collision course with you at 560 mi/s more terrifying than one approaching at, say, 10 mi/s?

Communitivity 2021-08-17 19:27:03 +0000 UTC [ - ]

For those wondering, this is 1/335th of the speed of light. Generally relativistic effects start being significant at around 10% speed of light, so no significant relativistic effects from this, I think.

weare138 2021-08-18 19:36:02 +0000 UTC [ - ]

Yeet!