Sep 1, 2019
Astronomers capture rare cosmic collision that’s a chance to ‘understand the chemistry of the universe’
Posted by Genevieve Klien in categories: chemistry, cosmology
It’s a cosmic collision that has astronomers rethinking one of the universe’s most colossal events: the collision of massive stars.
In a new paper published in the journal Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, astronomers reveal the finding of a kilonova produced by the collision of two massive stellar objects called neutron stars. The collision is roughly 1,000 times brighter than the death of a massive star called a supernova. And they say it produced several hundred planets’ worth of gold and platinum.
But astronomers almost missed it.