https://www.sciencenews.org/article/neut...onal-waves

my buddy said this was huge important science news. paradigm shifting level 11 sh!t. anyone want to explain why? i didn't read the whole thing at all

Quote:WASHINGTON — Two ultradense cores of dead stars have produced a long-awaited cosmic collision, showering scientists with riches.

The event was the first direct sighting of a smashup of neutron stars, which are formed when aging stars explode and leave behind a neutron-rich remnant. In the wake of the collision, the churning residue forged gold, silver, platinum and a smattering of other heavy elements such as uranium, researchers reported October 16 at a news conference in Washington, D.C. Such elements’ birthplaces were previously unknown, but their origins were revealed by the cataclysm’s afterglow.

“It really is the last missing piece” of the periodic table, says Anna Frebel, an astronomer at MIT who was not involved in the research. “This is heaven for anyone working in the field.” After the collision, about 10 times the Earth’s mass in gold was spewed out into space, some scientists calculated.

Using data gathered by about 70 different observatories, astronomers characterized the event in exquisite detail, releasing a slew of papers describing the results. A tremor of gravitational waves, spotted by the Advanced Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory, LIGO, on August 17, provided the first sign of the cataclysm.

Light types
wavelengths of light detected from neutron star merger
ROBERT HURT/IPAC/CALTECH, MANSI KASLIWAL AND GREGG HALLINAN/CALTECH, PHIL EVANS/NASA AND THE GROWTH COLLABORATION

Telescopes picked up the afterglow of two converging neutron stars in a variety of wavelengths of light, from ultraviolet (left, image from NASA’s Swift satellite) to infrared (middle, image from the Gemini South telescope) to radio waves (right, image from the Very Large Array).

“Already it is transforming our understanding of the universe, with a fresh narrative of the physics of stars in their death throes,” said France Córdova, director of the National Science Foundation, which funds LIGO.

A sequence of various types of electromagnetic radiation followed that gravitational trill, like musical instruments taking turns in a symphony. A burst of gamma rays segued into a glow of visible and infrared light, first spotted about 12 hours after the smashup. More than a week later, as those wavelengths faded away, X-rays crescendoed, followed by radio waves.

Combining gravitational waves with light from a neutron star merger is a long-held dream of astrophysicists. “The picture that you can put together by having all of those sources is synergistic,” says LIGO spokesperson David Shoemaker of MIT. “You can make inferences that otherwise would be impossible."

That detailed picture revealed the inner workings of neutron star collisions and the source of brief blasts of high-energy light called short gamma-ray bursts. Researchers also calculated how fast the universe is expanding and tested the properties of the odd material within neutron stars.

For astrophysicists, “this event is the Rosetta stone,” says LIGO member Richard O’Shaughnessy of the Rochester Institute of Technology in New York.

LIGO’s two detectors, located in the United States, registered an unmistakable sign of the upheaval: A shimmying of space itself that continued for about 100 seconds before cutting off. It was the strongest and longest series of spacetime ripples LIGO had ever seen. At that point, scientists knew they had something big, says LIGO member Vicky Kalogera of Northwestern University in Evanston, Ill. “The e-mails that were circulated said, ‘Oh my God, this is it.’”

and you know they also apparently shut down cern? i didn't know that. i had a chance to go there, but geneva is a helluva town

Mmmm, trillions of tons of space gold. Got to get me a net and a space ship.

My first astronomy class in college ended with a lecture about how the stars produced all the heavier elements we find in the universe. Paraphrasing---the last line of the lecture was---"Thus, most everything that surrounds you, most everything you can see, everything that you can feel, even your own body--is quite literally---stardust."

Gave me chills.

I just wanna know where the gold at. Give me the gold, I want the gold.

The Russians are going to beat us to the uranium!

It is our destiny to procure this space gold and use it to fund our nefarious schemes

(10-19-2017 08:30 AM)CameramanJ Wrote:  It is our destiny to procure this space gold and use it to fund our nefarious schemes

What are we going to do today, Brain?

(10-19-2017 08:32 AM)Claw Wrote:  

(10-19-2017 08:30 AM)CameramanJ Wrote:  It is our destiny to procure this space gold and use it to fund our nefarious schemes

What are we going to do today, Brain?

(10-19-2017 08:30 AM)CameramanJ Wrote:  It is our destiny to procure this space gold and use it to fund our nefarious schemes

Does anyone else know about this space gold?

The importance of this event was because it was literally the first time we had detectors available to sense that an actual collision happened. Because of this, they were able to quickly search some areas and locate where the collision occurred, examined the aftermath, and could see the gold, platinum, and other heavy elements being produced from the event.

We know heavier elements exist, because they are here on earth, but there were only theories into how they were able to form. As stars run out of hydrogen, they begin to collapse as they cant produce enough energy by fusing hydrogen into helium. The heavier pressures allows them to begin fusing helium. For a star the size of our sun, this process will continue until it gets to carbon, which it will not be able to fuse. Other stars that are larger can fuse deeper into the periodic element chart. But this process can only get to the elements of iron or nickle in the largest of stars, so to go deeper into the periodic element chart, there needs to be an enermous amount of additional energy provided to convert into the heavier elements.

For large stars, this occurs when they go supernova.

In this event, you had two extremely dense collapsed stars that basically ran into each other, providing the energy to create the heavier elements.

Its one thing to theorize what caused the heavier elements. Its another thing to witness it happening right after an event. With the detectors in place, they were able to witness and confirm the production of the heavy metals. Thats why its a big deal and all of the scientists are giddy.

(10-19-2017 09:23 AM)UofMstateU Wrote:  The importance of this event was because it was literally the first time we had detectors available to sense that an actual collision happened. Because of this, they were able to quickly search some areas and locate where the collision occurred, examined the aftermath, and could see the gold, platinum, and other heavy elements being produced from the event.

We know heavier elements exist, because they are here on earth, but there were only theories into how they were able to form. As stars run out of hydrogen, they begin to collapse as they cant produce enough energy by fusing hydrogen into helium. The heavier pressures allows them to begin fusing helium. For a star the size of our sun, this process will continue until it gets to carbon, which it will not be able to fuse. Other stars that are larger can fuse deeper into the periodic element chart. But this process can only get to the elements of iron or nickle in the largest of stars, so to go deeper into the periodic element chart, there needs to be an enermous amount of additional energy provided to convert into the heavier elements.

For large stars, this occurs when they go supernova.

In this event, you had two extremely dense collapsed stars that basically ran into each other, providing the energy to create the heavier elements.

Its one thing to theorize what caused the heavier elements. Its another thing to witness it happening right after an event. With the detectors in place, they were able to witness and confirm the production of the heavy metals. Thats why its a big deal and all of the scientists are giddy.

i'll have to go over this again but tnx for dropping some knowledge

(10-19-2017 11:43 AM)Lush Wrote:  

(10-19-2017 09:23 AM)UofMstateU Wrote:  The importance of this event was because it was literally the first time we had detectors available to sense that an actual collision happened. Because of this, they were able to quickly search some areas and locate where the collision occurred, examined the aftermath, and could see the gold, platinum, and other heavy elements being produced from the event.

We know heavier elements exist, because they are here on earth, but there were only theories into how they were able to form. As stars run out of hydrogen, they begin to collapse as they cant produce enough energy by fusing hydrogen into helium. The heavier pressures allows them to begin fusing helium. For a star the size of our sun, this process will continue until it gets to carbon, which it will not be able to fuse. Other stars that are larger can fuse deeper into the periodic element chart. But this process can only get to the elements of iron or nickle in the largest of stars, so to go deeper into the periodic element chart, there needs to be an enermous amount of additional energy provided to convert into the heavier elements.

For large stars, this occurs when they go supernova.

In this event, you had two extremely dense collapsed stars that basically ran into each other, providing the energy to create the heavier elements.

Its one thing to theorize what caused the heavier elements. Its another thing to witness it happening right after an event. With the detectors in place, they were able to witness and confirm the production of the heavy metals. Thats why its a big deal and all of the scientists are giddy.

i'll have to go over this again but tnx for dropping some knowledge

That was far more informative but similar to my response....

best I know, first time we've been able to observe something in nature that we've spent hundreds of billions and perhaps trillions on trying to project and recreate. What happens in a lab is valuable, but NEVER more valuable than what happens in the real world (for most purposes)... and of course, on a far more massive scale.

the number and combinations of elements being 'smashed' dwarf in moments what science has been able to do over decades.

(10-18-2017 08:44 PM)banker Wrote:  Mmmm, trillions of tons of space gold. Got to get me a net and a space ship.

Hope not. That would devalue every gram I own now and might be a world wide economic disaster.

(10-19-2017 01:14 AM)Centdukesfan Wrote:  I just wanna know where the gold at. Give me the gold, I want the gold.

First, you need a rainbow (you won't find that at the Wh anymore). Secondly, you need to find the end of the rainbow. THAT'S where you'll find it.

Save some for me.

(10-19-2017 01:14 AM)Centdukesfan Wrote:  I just wanna know where the gold at. Give me the gold, I want the gold.

Find the leprechaun

I prefer the planet made diamonds personally. https://www.space.com/18011-super-earth-...world.html