Scientists Discover the Origin of Gold in the Universe

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Scientists Discover the Origin of Gold in the Universe
Tempo.co TEMPO.CO
Published: 17/10/2017 09:31
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Illustration of the incorporation of neutron stars into the origin of gold in the universe. Credit: University of Marwick Mark Garlick
Large amounts of gold, platinum, uranium and other heavy elements are created in the remaining collisions of neutron stars, and pumped out into the universe.
San Francisco - The origins of gold in the universe were finally confirmed, after a source of gravitational waves was seen and heard for the first time by an international collaborative researcher, where astronomers at the University of Warwick played a leading role, as reported by the Phys site .org yesterday.
Members of Warwick Astronomy and Astrophysics Group, Professor Andrew Levan, Dr Joe Lyman, Dr. Sam Oates and Dr. Danny Steeghs, made observations that captured the light of two colliding neutron stars, shortly after being detected through gravitational waves.
A large amount of gold, platinum, uranium and other heavy elements are created in the collision of the rest of this compact star, and pumped out into the universe. This unlocks the mystery of how gold in wedding rings and jewelry was originally formed.
The collision produces as much gold as Earth's mass.
This finding also confirms conclusively that short bursts of gamma rays are directly caused by the merging of two neutron stars.
The neutron stars are very dense - just as heavy as our Sun is only 10 kilometers away - and they collided with each other 130 million years ago, when dinosaurs roamed the Earth, in a relatively old galaxy that no longer formed many stars.
They pull each other for millions of light-years, and spin each other faster as they approach, which eventually spins each other five hundred times per second.
Their merging sends ripples through space and time, and these ripples are the elusive gravitational waves found by astronomers.
The gravitational waves were detected by the Advanced Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (Adv-LIGO) on August 17 this year, with a short-duration gamma ray detected by the Fermi satellite just two seconds later.
"The beautiful observations gained over the next few days show that we are observing kilonova, an object whose light is supported by extreme nuclear reactions, which tells us that heavy elements, such as gold or platinum in jewelry, are embers, forged in the billions of degrees of waste, the remaining neutron stars are joined, "says Dr. Joe Lyman.