Cosmic Factory’s Origins Revealed In University Of Auckland Research
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Loading... - Kayla Harrison
- 20 Jan 2023
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Scientists have shed new light on "factories" in outer space producing elements used in the creation of planets, galaxies, and life.
Researchers led by Dr Heloise Stevance, of the Department of Physics at Waipapa Taumatau Rau, University of Auckland, sketched the back story of a neutron-star merger.
Neutron stars, the collapsed cores of massive stars that have exploded, are among the densest objects in the universe. When two neutron stars merge, an explosion called a kilonova forges elements such as gold, platinum, and uranium (the cosmic factory at work.)
A neutron-star merger was observed for the first time in 2017 after advances in technology allowed the detection of gravitational waves, ripples in the fabric of timespace which are released as the stars spiral into each other.
It’s this 2017 event, which took place about 130 million light years away, that Stevance and her colleagues investigated. Read More…
