Astronomers Strike Gravitational Gold In Colliding Neutron StarsOctober 16, 201710:01 AM ET
http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2017/10/16/557557544/astronomers-strike-gravitational-gold-in-colliding-neutron-stars
The collision of two neutron stars, seen in an artist's rendering, created both gravitational waves and gamma rays. Researchers used those signals to locate the event with optical telescopes.
Robin Dienel/Carnegie Institution for ScienceFor the first time, scientists have caught two neutron stars in the act of colliding, revealing that these strange smashups are the source of heavy elements such as gold and platinum.
The discovery, announced Monday at a news conference and in scientific reports written by some 3,500 researchers, solves a long-standing mystery about the origin of these heavy elements — which are found in everything from wedding rings to cellphones to nuclear weapons.
[...]
Here's a rendering of the neutron-star collisionhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e7LcmWiclOsHere's how it actually looked to astronomers
The discovery has consumed the astronomical community in recent weeks. "By my count, 70 astronomical telescopes started looking for this event in the area of the sky that we found it," says David Reitze, a physicist at Caltech who is executive director of the LIGO project. "This event, in some sense, is the first event that we've seen in gravitational waves and in light. It's a new way to look at the universe."
[...]
Excerpt. Lots more at link.
