GW170817 Confirmed Neutron-Star Mergers Forge Gold, Producing 200 Earth-Masses in One Collision
Updated
Updated · spacedaily.com · Jun 3
GW170817 Confirmed Neutron-Star Mergers Forge Gold, Producing 200 Earth-Masses in One Collision
2 articles · Updated · spacedaily.com · Jun 3
Summary
GW170817 showed a neutron-star merger can create about 200 Earth-masses of gold and nearly 500 Earth-masses of platinum, directly tying such collisions to the origin of the heaviest elements.
LIGO and Virgo detected the 2017 merger’s gravitational waves, while telescopes tracked a red kilonova afterglow whose optical and infrared signatures matched long-developed r-process nucleosynthesis models.
About 6% of a solar mass—roughly 20,000 Earth-masses of ejecta—was thrown out from the collision in NGC 4993, 130 million light-years away, enough to enrich galaxies with elements heavier than iron.
The finding resolved the long-standing question of whether neutron-star mergers make gold, though it did not prove they account for all cosmic gold; rare collapsars and magnetar flares may also contribute.
That means Earth’s gold was forged in ancient stellar cataclysms billions of years before the Solar System formed, then mixed into the cloud that later became the Sun and planets.
If neutron star collisions are too rare, what other violent cosmic forges are creating the universe's gold and platinum?
Can scientists now identify the unique elemental fingerprints of other stellar cataclysms like magnetar flares and 'superkilonovae'?
With over 200 cosmic collisions now detected, what new fundamental secrets of the universe are being unlocked?
GW170817: The First Multi-Messenger Detection of a Neutron Star Merger and the Cosmic Origin of Gold
Overview
On August 17, 2017, scientists made history by detecting GW170817, the first binary neutron star merger observed through both gravitational waves and light. Advanced LIGO and Virgo picked up the gravitational wave signal, while telescopes worldwide quickly spotted its light across the spectrum. This event not only confirmed that such mergers create heavy elements like gold and platinum, but also opened a new era of multi-messenger astronomy. GW170817 provided direct evidence for the cosmic origin of these elements and offered unprecedented insights into the universe’s most extreme phenomena.