metals

Most Read

Top stories

Scientists Now Think They Know How the Universe Forges Most Heavy Metals

For the first time, two neutron stars were directly observed colliding with one another and collapsing into a black hole. For astronomers, this discovery is a huge deal, because it hints at where most of the heavy metals in our Universe, such as silver, uranium, platinum and gold, come from.

Scientists Now Think They Know How the Universe Forges Most Heavy Metals
Neutron star collison.

We are made of star stuff. With the exception of hydrogen and some helium, all the elements that we know and are made of were forged in the hot cores of giant stars billions of years ago. This includes carbon, nitrogen, oxygen and iron. Now, scientists are learning how most of the Universe’s heavy metals, like silver, gold, platinum and uranium, are generated. Without metals, life (as we know it) can not exist.

For the first time, in August 2017, two neutron stars were directly observed colliding with one another and collapsing into a black hole. The event occurred 130 million light years away. Astronomers at the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatories (LIGO) in the United States and the Virgo Interferometer in Italy detected gravitational waves, ripples in the fabric of spacetime caused by the birth of a black hole, emitting from a pair of merging neutron stars.

Keep reading...Show less