How neutron star collisions flooded Earth with gold and other precious metals

[Judi Lynn]

By Paul Sutter about 6 hours ago

It killed some alternate ideas about gravity, too



n artist's depiction of a cloud of heavy-metal-rich debris surrounding merging neutron stars. (Image credit: NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center/CI Lab)

Paul M. Sutter is an astrophysicist at SUNY Stony Brook and the Flatiron Institute, host of "Ask a Spaceman" and "Space Radio," and author of "How to Die in Space."

The universe is pretty good at smashing things together. All kinds of stuff collides — stars, black holes and ultradense objects called neutron stars.

And when neutron stars do it, the collisions release a flood of elements necessary for life.

Let's explore how astronomers used subtle ripples in the fabric of space-time to confirm that colliding neutron stars make life as we know it possible.

Just about everything has collided at one point or another in the history of the universe, so astronomers had long figured that neutron stars — superdense objects born in the explosive deaths of large stars — smashed together, too. But starting about a decade ago, astronomers realized that the collision of neutron stars would be particularly interesting.

More:
https://www.space.com/neutron-star-collisions-gave-earth-precious-metals?utm_source=notification

[Igel]

1. "Flooded."

What?

[NNadir]

2. An excellent talk, but he rather glibly ignored the S-process for element formation.

The S-process is endothermic to be sure, but very real.

It's commonly observed in nuclear reactors on Earth as well as in the core of stars.