A strange, strange universe
Strange matter, a primordial museum holding records of the single most significant event known to us, the birth of the universe. They are also known to be the most dangerous substance in the universe competing with the likes of dreaded cosmic monsters, the black hole. But, before being devoured by the strangeness of strange matter let us take a deep dive into a neutron star.
In massive stars, once the core has completely burned into iron, energy production stops and the core rapidly collapses, squeezing electrons and protons together to form neutrons and neutrinos. These particles then exert force outwards while gravity pushes them inward. In case, the core of the star consists of less than 3 solar masses the particles can support a neutron star while occupying the smallest amount of space possible. In case mass is greater than that it collapses into a black hole.
These neutron stars are dense, so dense that they can be wholly be presumed as an atomic nucleus having a mass in the scale of the stars, while occupying a space smaller than a city.
Neutrons, just as in any part of the universe as the neutron stars, are made up of quarks.
Quarks have been seen only as the building blocks of other particles and never alone and by themselves.
There are 6 ‘flavours’ of quarks:
- Up
- Down
- Charm
- Strange
- Top
- Bottom
All quarks have the same spin (1/2), and three of them (up, charm and top) have charge 2/3, while the other three (down, strange and bottom) have charge minus 1/3. Each one has a unique mass
Up and Down Quarks are found in protons and neutrons. All other quarks decay quickly. Strange quark is the third lightest of all quarks and has a varying ‘strangeness’.
In neutron stars, the nature of their insides is so extreme that the rules of nuclear physics are bent. The forces operating in the core of these neutron stars are so much so that the protons and neutrons deconfine and it turns into a ‘bath’ of quarks. All the particles are crammed in such confined space that it creates one humongous thing only consisting of quarks. Such a thing would be called a quark matter.
When a star is made from this ‘quark matter’, it is called a quark star.
If the pressure inside a quark star is great enough, it may get stranger, as the ‘strangeness’ of the quarks change in the cores of neutron stars, some of the quarks may be converted into ‘strange’ quarks due to this.
Once a strange quark is formed it might form up to make strange matter. Strange matter is hypothesized to be the stablest form of matter in the universe.
Strange matter is perfectly dense, perfectly stable and indestructible matter. It is said to be so stable that it can influence other matter nearby into changing its quarks and turning into a strange matter.
It might even be the most ideal state of matter in the whole universe.
Since the strange matter is said to influence nearby matter to turn into strange matter, the whole inside of such a quark star could be converted to strange matter and such a star would be then called Strange Star.
These stars would have parts of it converted while parts of it held normal due to outer layers being less dense.
As strange matter influences other matter to turn into the same, it could be said to be infectious. Any Baryonic matter it touches, it will convert the whole of the substance into strange matter.
It would be folly, to think these substances are far away from the solar system and, earth and humanity is safe, as in fact, these substances are all around the universe since the big bang. Moreover, neutron stars, although being the best cage, for these, in the universe sometimes is susceptible to shortfalls, as when neutron stars collide with other neutron stars or black holes, they spew out a lot of their insides. Some of these gushing out matter could include little droplets of strange matter called strangelets.
Strangelets are as dense as the core of the neutron. They could be varying in sizes from being as small as a subatomic scale to something as big as a skyscraper.
These strangelets could be drifting around the universe for billions of years…until…they meet other matter.
If a strangelet were to come in contact with any planet, in a matter of time the whole of the planet would be converted into stable strange matter, having a fraction of its previous size yet having the same mass.
If it were to come in contact with our sun at this very moment, it would keep converting and growing. Like a wildfire in a dry forest. Ultimately all of the sun’s matter would be converted into a smaller clump of hot strange matter.
Although the sun’s mass would not change it would dim out.
Once the glorious light from the sun disappears, life on Earth would seize to exist. Everything on the surface would freeze to death.
Strangelets are hypothesised to be numerous and everywhere.
They could be clumping around the gravity of the galaxies, or even…one on its due course to Earth.
There are theories out there that speculate, strangelets outnumber the number of stars in the universe. Strangelets could have been formed during the early stages of the universe right after the big bang. When everything and everywhere it was as hot and dense as the cores of neutron stars.
Strangelets could even be so numerous that it is speculated to be a candidate for dark matter that holds galaxies together. But that is just speculation.
The core of a neutron star is like a fossil to study the early stages of the universe. The forces operating inside these would be so extreme that they are actually similar to the universe shortly after the big bang.
Studying strangelet will help us gain more information at the beginning of this strange universe. Theories state that strange matter could be studied using the different exotic matter while keeping it contained.
