stardust

Here’s an Idea: Collect Stardust

Scientists have discovered that every single speck of gold now on earth was the result of one or more collisions of two neutron stars in our galaxy. This likely occurred billions of years ago.


This sounds like something I would make up, but it is absolutely true.

Such a collision was first observed last August (during the ANA convention, perhaps?) by astronomers in the US, Germany and Great Britain. In the words of one of those astronomers, Dr. Joe Lyman:

“The observations showed we were observing a kilonova, an object whose light is powered by extreme nuclear reactions. This tells us that the heavy elements, like the gold or platinum in jewelry, are the cinders, forged in the billion degree remnants of a merging neutron star.”

Here is a link to the story in Britain’s Telegraph: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/science/2017/10/16/secret-gold-finally-found-precious-metals-forged-cataclysmic/

Pretty cool, ay?