this post was submitted on 06 Jun 2025
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50
What would happen to a single human if they were put into the jet of a quasar? (lemmy.world)
submitted 2 days ago by P00ptart@lemmy.world to c/asklemmy@lemmy.world
26 comments fedilink hide all child comments
 

Like, obviously they would die immediately. But I'm wondering, would they be ripped to subatomic shreds? Would they somehow manage to set off a small nuclear explosion? Would they just get cooked as they're propelled into the void?

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[–] CanadaPlus@lemmy.sdf.org 1 points 2 hours ago

I mean, technically you're in one right now. Some of them just randomly point in our direction. But I'm sure you mean up close.

It's particles going a significant fraction of the speed of light, but you may well have a few of those going through you as we speak. I don't know how much is known about how wide they are exactly, or how dense, but it's possible you'd die slowly from radiation poisoning rather than of anything more dramatic.

Some things look a lot more impressive from far away, like nebulae, which are almost perfect vacuums that are just a bit less perfect than their surroundings.

[–] Pat@feddit.nu 3 points 21 hours ago (1 children)

[–] P00ptart@lemmy.world 2 points 21 hours ago* (last edited 20 hours ago) (1 children)

I think it may be smaller than that. Down to subatomic particles. But that is funny haha. Also his chin is a nutsack.

Edit: I'm very juvenile.

[–] Skunk@jlai.lu 3 points 19 hours ago* (last edited 19 hours ago)

I'm very juvenile

I wouldn’t have figured myself, P00ptart

[–] truxnell@aussie.zone 18 points 1 day ago

Randal Munro's comment in a what if comes to mind: "You wouldn't really die of anything, you would just stop being biology and start being physics"

[–] sharkfucker420@lemmy.ml 11 points 2 days ago

To shreds you say

[–] Justdaveisfine@midwest.social 31 points 2 days ago (1 children)

They would no longer have to pay taxes.

[–] P00ptart@lemmy.world 9 points 2 days ago

Where do I sign up?

[–] Sasha@lemmy.blahaj.zone 18 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (2 children)

I did a little snooping and found someone claiming to have a source on the diameter of a jet, but their link went nowhere. I think it's this though. Anyway, at 0.05 light years across and presumed circular, a human body purposefully over estimated to have a cross sectional area of 2m^2, would be subject to 28.5 gigawatts.

Wolfram Alpha very kindly points out that this is the equivalent of nearly two and a half space shuttles blasting you, boosters and all. Good luck!

I've no idea how accurate this is, but googling gave me an estimate of the energy required that suggests it would take a little less than three seconds to vaporize an entire body. If it can create a plasma, that counts as subatomic in my books, but I've no idea what that would take.

Nuclear would depend more on the particle kinematics and I've got no intuition there tbh. I'm sure it's certainly possible though, especially if you get close.

[–] CanadaPlus@lemmy.sdf.org 1 points 1 hour ago

Matter in the jets go at like 0.25c, which some quick research tells me is absolutely enough to overwhelm the coulomb barrier and cause nuclear reactions.

Where is that image from? I was expecting a lot wider. (And it's going to be speculation because we have limited resolution that far away)

[–] dmention7@lemm.ee 5 points 2 days ago

I'm as fascinated by those shuttle comparisons as anything else!

On the face of it, I wouldn't have guessed that the space shuttle's power output was measured in gigawatts, nor that the space shuttle's output is on the same scale as an entire country's steam power output (in 1896, sure... but still!)

[–] cattywampas@lemm.ee 22 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Quasars are some of the most energetic objects in the known universe. That jet is made of high energy X-rays and gamma rays and would probably convert a human body to ionized particles very quickly.

[–] Aquila@sh.itjust.works 6 points 2 days ago (2 children)

Does that mean they like evaporate? Incinerate?

[–] Venus_Ziegenfalle@feddit.org 10 points 2 days ago

Disintegrate

[–] JohnnyCanuck@lemmy.ca 4 points 2 days ago

Ionate

[–] spittingimage@lemmy.world 9 points 2 days ago

Ever hold a strong flashlight up to your hand and see your bones outlined in red? Like that, only... more.

[–] daggermoon@lemmy.world 3 points 1 day ago (1 children)

they would be unalived before they knew what hit them

[–] P00ptart@lemmy.world 5 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Well yeah, but the question is how. It's interesting to think about because we have no idea exactly. You can be unalived from bumping your head wrong, just dying in itself is unimpressive.

Also: my new favorite death representative wording is "meeting his end credits" that's just a side, but it sounds way more fun, especially if the person really deserves it.

[–] daggermoon@lemmy.world 3 points 1 day ago (1 children)

He game ended is still a classic as well.

[–] P00ptart@lemmy.world 3 points 1 day ago

That is a good one.

[–] CouncilOfFriends@lemmy.world 11 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Only one way to find out

[–] spankmonkey@lemmy.world 8 points 2 days ago (1 children)

A simulation!

[–] tal@lemmy.today 6 points 2 days ago

All the basic technologies ever invented by humans to feed and protect themselves depend on a relentless commitment to hard-nosed empiricism: you cannot assume that your arrowheads will pierce the hide of a bison or that your raft will float just because the omens are propitious and you have been given supernatural reassurance that they will. You have to be sure.

---Barbara Ehrenreich

[–] elbucho@lemmy.world 4 points 2 days ago

This kills the human.

[–] Curious_Canid@lemmy.ca -2 points 2 days ago (1 children)

The quasar wouldn't do anything that the vacuum hadn't already done...

[–] CanadaPlus@lemmy.sdf.org 1 points 1 hour ago

You can actually survive a vacuum pretty well, until you suffocate.