Astronomers discovered that a neutron star collision in 2017 created the heavy element strontium alongside gold, lead and platinum.
Two years ago, astronomers first observed the collision of two neutron stars. This terrible explosion not only emits gravitational waves and light, but also produces heavy elements such as gold, platinum and lead. These elements are scattered throughout the universe from a kilonova explosion (similar to a supernova explosion).
Scientists have also discovered strontium – a heavy element created after a collision of neutron stars. This discovery strengthens the evidence that neutron star clashes can produce the heavy elements found throughout the universe.
Neutron stars are the smallest objects in the universe with only the diameter of the city of Chicago or Atlanta (USA). These are the remnants of supernovae but are extremely dense with masses even larger than the Sun.
Imagine the Sun being compressed to the size of a city, you will see how dense and heavy neutron stars are, and how terrible their collisions will be.
The new discovery of this neutron star collision has just been published in the journal Nature on October 23, 2019.
“By reanalyzing the 2017 neutron star fusion data, we discovered the presence of another heavy element in this fireball, strontium. This strengthens the claim. That the neutron star collision could create this element in the universe, “said Darach Watson – senior researcher at the University of Copenhagen in Denmark.
Strontium is used in the manufacture of fireworks and is heavier than iron.
Astronomers are studying how these heavy elements were created over the decades.
“This is the last step in a decades-long quest for the origins of these elements. We all know the process of making these elements mostly in early stars, explosions, supernovae, or the outer layers of old stars.
So far, however, we don’t know the location of this final step, commonly referred to as the rapid neutron capture process as it forms heavy elements in the periodic table of chemical elements, ”Watson said.
During the rapid capture of neutrons, neutrons are captured extremely quickly by atomic nuclei. Besides the speed factor, heavy elements like strotium also need an extremely hot medium filled with free neutrons to form. This is a natural process that only occurs in such harsh environments and occurs in less than a second.
Since the neutron star collision just happened in 2017, astronomers are still figuring out what happened in the process as well as what was created afterwards.
