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| near collision of two neutron stars in the rotten wood plank nedbula © the cinemascapist |
Astronomer's discover the origins of Gold from cataclysmic stellar explosions.
(or so they think for now)
Laymen's terms: Two very old ass stars crashed into each other and a river of gold larger than the earth came spewing from their arses like a pot at the end of a Leprechaun's rainbow.
(or so they think for now)
Laymen's terms: Two very old ass stars crashed into each other and a river of gold larger than the earth came spewing from their arses like a pot at the end of a Leprechaun's rainbow.
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| my caricaturization of a gold "grill" |
scientific (using that term loosely) terms: Scientist have stumbled upon a huge tail of radioactive elements that was the result of a collision of two neutron stars while scanning the heavens for gamma-ray bursts.
Let's start with gamma-ray bursts. These are extremely energetic explosions, the biggest of any kind in the universe some say* (*wikipedia). Not sure exactly why they were looking for these events or what they might be trying to find from them (that'll be a read for another day), but they were, and they found gold.
This explosion was the result of two neutron stars colliding (reenactment photo above). Neutron stars are wicked dense balls of neutron rock left after a star dies from a gravitational implosion. When these two balls collide the explosion causes quite a commotion in the immediately area. This one caused a black hole and a large area of radioactive elements (iron, thorium, uranium).
Long story short... Out of this radioactive wasteland they discovered gold. So much gold that they estimate it's mass to be 10 times that of our moon with a street value of $10 octillion (FACT: I've never written nor said the word octillion until today). With this find they hypothesize that all the gold in the cosmos stems from these types of explosions.
Let's start with gamma-ray bursts. These are extremely energetic explosions, the biggest of any kind in the universe some say* (*wikipedia). Not sure exactly why they were looking for these events or what they might be trying to find from them (that'll be a read for another day), but they were, and they found gold.
This explosion was the result of two neutron stars colliding (reenactment photo above). Neutron stars are wicked dense balls of neutron rock left after a star dies from a gravitational implosion. When these two balls collide the explosion causes quite a commotion in the immediately area. This one caused a black hole and a large area of radioactive elements (iron, thorium, uranium).
Long story short... Out of this radioactive wasteland they discovered gold. So much gold that they estimate it's mass to be 10 times that of our moon with a street value of $10 octillion (FACT: I've never written nor said the word octillion until today). With this find they hypothesize that all the gold in the cosmos stems from these types of explosions.
So who's down with smashing two dense balls together to see if we can make gold? You bring the rocks, I'll bring the muscle.
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