Okay. Forget about alien invasions or giant meteors rushing toward Earth. There’s something
much more dangerous lurking in space, and it’s called "strange matter." While people
don't know much about it, experts are sure that under particular conditions, this stuff
would be able to eat our planet alive!
But to grasp the concept of strange matter better, we first need to understand protons,
neutrons, and neutron stars.
Look at your hand. It's made up of tiny cells. If you start to zoom in on these cells, you'll
see a bunch of molecules. Keep going, and you'll notice that molecules consist of atoms,
which have protons and neutrons in their nucleus. Outside of all that, you have electrons flying
around in small clouds. If you could see all this up close, you’d find that these particles
aren't crammed together in a tiny space. In fact, there's enough room between them to
make you wonder why your hand feels solid at all!
But when you touch or press your hand, all those atoms resist the force. And the harder
you press, the more atoms stop you. But what if you push really, really hard? Oh, then
you'll eventually force the nuclei together and fuse some new elements! (Not that this
is possible if it's your hand you squeeze really hard.) But it can happen with a neutron
star…
Imagine this: a super powerful and massive star is reaching the end of its life. One
of the potential scenarios is that it runs out of its nuclear fuel and, in a blinding
burst, collapses under its own gravity. If the star had been massive enough, it’ll
produce a black hole. But if it wasn't that big, a neutron star will appear in its place.
At about 10 miles (16 km) across, a neutron star is itsy bitsy when we’re talking about
stars in general. But at the same time, this small space is unbelievably dense – about
1.4 times the mass of the sun! It means that just one teaspoon of a neutron star would
weigh a staggering 10 million tons!
Scientists say that one day these neutrons can get tired of holding all that weight,
and the structure keeping the entire thing together will collapse. This, in turn, leads
to the appearance of a quark star, which is even smaller and denser than a neutron star.
Now let's say the pressure inside a quark star is getting stronger. As a result, things
called “strange quarks” can appear in its core. They’ve been dubbed “strange”
because, well, they don’t behave like normal quarks. (I would’ve gone with “quirky
quarks” but that’s just me…) Really simply put, if these strange quarks are numerous
enough, they create strange matter, which is unique and unlike any matter you find on
Earth. Oh yeah, and it could be the most dangerous thing in our Universe!
Hang on, I’m getting there! But first, let's conduct a virtual experiment with something
more familiar than a neutron star. We'll take an iron atom and start to squeeze it with
tremendous force. Sooner or later, the atom's neutrons and protons will blow apart into
those quark things. Add some more pressure, and some of these quarks will change, become
heavier, and turn into strange quarks. What we have on our hands now isn't an iron atom
but something called a strangelet. That’s a tiny piece of strange matter. Oh, don’t
you love science!
Strange matter is much heavier than our matter. Besides, our dear matter is organized and
predictable. It consists of atoms that are, in turn, made up of nuclei and electrons.
And our quarks are neatly squeezed into neutrons and protons where they should be.
But strange matter – oh, that's a bundle of chaos! Here’s where the “strange”
part comes in. Its quarks have no boundaries – they just run totally amok wherever and
however they want. Yet, surprisingly among all this particle chaos, strange matter remains
stable, very dense, and impossible to destruct. But that's where it gets a bit disconcerting:
strange matter is so stable that it can exist anywhere in the Universe, even outside a neutron
star. But the worst thing is that strange matter may be... contagious!
Imagine an innocent jar of honey that suddenly goes nuts and decides to consume everything
around: the table, plates, your kitchen, you, the whole galaxy! What a sticky mess! But
that's exactly what may happen if strange matter was left to roam on its own. It’s
like the vampire of particle physics. Anything it touches can be transformed into strange
matter itself.
Ok, yeah, but this stuff is happening way out in space in neutron stars that are thousands
of light years away! Well, the thing is, when two neutron stars collide or when a neutron
star crashes into a black hole, these strangelets break free. And at millions of miles per hour,
these tiny (or not so tiny) guys race through space. They can keep going for billions of
years... until they come across something they can consume. Sadly, a strangelet wouldn't
care whether the object it's encountered is a star or a planet full of life! This space
invader would get down to work right away, and soon it would convert Earth and everything
on it into more strange matter!
So, would there be a way to stop all this from happening? There is one solution, but
it seems kind of impossible at the moment. You see, to get rid of strange matter, the
only thing we could do is toss it into a black hole. But this escape plan raises all kinds
of questions itself. I mean, let’s even say that we’re at a point when humankind
can travel through space, um, Star Wars style.
Ok, but still, in order to deposit the dangerous stuff, you’d need to get really close to
the black hole. Let’s picture what would happen as you approach it. First, you’ll
notice some blackness blotting out the light from surrounding stars. That’s just how
strong the gravity of a black hole is – not even light can pass through it, hence the
name. As soon as you get to the black hole’s edge, aka the event horizon, you won't be
able to turn back because it’s the point of no return.
Even if you were super strong or were traveling at the speed of light, you still wouldn't
be able to escape the immense gravitational pull. Plus, you wouldn’t even be able to
reach the event horizon in the first place – you’d be spaghetti by then. No, for
real, it’s actually called spaghettification, and it happens when something is stretched
paper-thin by a black hole’s gravitational field. In other words, everything that approaches
a black hole gets broken down into individual atoms. And we become long thin pasta. Not
the best way to go, I’m afraid.
Yeah, it’d be a tough and dangerous feat to transport and throw this strange matter
into a black hole. By the way, how would you transport it there anyway? You could probably
use some kind of catapult, but that raises another question: how are you gonna prevent
the strange matter from consuming this catapult, your spacecraft, or you! Even in this hypothetical
sci-fi space travel scenario, it still seems impossible!
In any case, at this point, strange matter is just a theory that hasn't been confirmed
yet. Interestingly enough, physicists have considered creating strange matter in a particle
accelerator, not unlike the Large Hadron Collider. Luckily, they later came to the conclusion
that it's impossible to do since particle accelerators get so hot that they’d immediately
melt any appearing strangelets. Phew, what a relief! But I’d still like to politely
ask them to not try it…please?
Well, it might be comforting to know that even if scientists managed to create some
strange matter, it’d be too unstable to live long enough to consume nearby atoms.
Plus, the strange matter that would appear as a result of the experiment would most likely
be positively charged. Such strangelets aren’t too dangerous for our world. Sure, they’d
be happy to snack on nearby electrons, but they probably wouldn't provoke that terrible
chain reaction I just told you about. Probably…
In any case, no strangelets have ever invaded Earth in all the billions of years of its
existence, which means that this strange invasion is highly unlikely to happen, at least not
any time soon. So don’t sweat it, and don’t worry about that jar of honey sitting on the
kitchen counter! (maniacal laugh…)
Do you think it's possible for a stray space strangelet to infect our planet? (Can you
say “Stray Space Strangelet” 5 times real fast?) Let me know if you can, and what else
you’re thinking about down in the comments! And if you love all things space-related,
then give this video a like, share it with a friend, and head over to the Bright Side
for more videos to satisfy all your cosmic needs!