News for hackers. Stuff that matters.

A comment on General relativity passes a range of precise tests set by pair of extreme stars. Parent comment

Re:General relativity passes a range of precise tests set by... by dotancohen on Thursday December 16, 2021 @03:44AM (#29576312)
Additionally, I love the challenge to language. These stars _are_ massive... but also tiny. Compare their 24 km radius to the 600,000 km radius of the sun. One of these objects would sit comfortably inside many Earth cities.

... at least for a milisecond before destroying it.

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:General relativity passes a range of precise tests set by... by brabel on Thursday December 16, 2021 @06:33AM (#29577204)
Now imagine that 24km object, something three times bigger than the biggest mountain on Earth, spinning 44 times a second!!! Of course, we can't even begin to imagine that this huge mountain also has the mass of the whole Earth, let alone the mass of the whole solar system (it's actually even more than that).

Just completely mind blowing.

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:General relativity passes a range of precise tests set by... by hbrav on Thursday December 16, 2021 @11:01AM (#29579527)
If you see "massive" in reference to an astronomical object, it usually means "having a lot of mass" rather than "being very big".

Not always of course, and the latter usage is more likely in less specialized news sources.

[ Parent | on HN ]