Neutron Star Mergers!!! How these collisions create heavy metals like Gold and Uranium???

For normal people on earth, it is very hard for them to imagine that the calm night sky full of stars which we see at night is not calm at all. Explosions having intensity greater than that of some million atomic bombs, are happening just right know. Neutron star mergers or neutron star collisions are one of such kind of explosion.

Neutron star collision is a type of stellar collision. It happens when two neutron stars orbit each other closely. As the time passes they spiral inwards. This happens because of gravitational radiation. Then a time comes, when they collide and form a bigger neutron star. This collision is called Neutron star collision.

The merger may result into a black hole also. It depends on the remnant mass exceeds the Tolmer-Oppenheimer-Volkoff limit. The merger can create strong gravitational waves as we have observed on 17^th August 2017 during LIGO/Virgo collaboration experiment. This confirmed Einstein’s gravitational wave theory.

The merger also create magnetic field that is trillions of times stronger than that of Earth. Short gamma-ray bursts are also created during the merger.

In April 2019, Zwicky Transient Facility was created to detect more neutron star collisions.

Spitzer space telescope observed neutron star collision ( image by NASA)

Neutron star collisions are responsible for creation of gold and uranium!!!

According to the researchers, the gold we wear and uranium we use in reactors for power generation are all the by-products of neutron star mergers.

Uranium Ore 

The researchers also found large amount of heavy elements in our solar system which are likely to be created by a single neutron star collision which may occurred about 80 million years before the birth of our solar system.

Neutron star collisions are not the sole reason behind the creation of all heavy metals. Supernovae and white dwarfs are also responsible for the creation of heavy metals.

In my upcoming articles, I am going to explain supernovae and white dwarfs and how they create these heavy metals so, don’t forget to subscribe to our website and follow me on social media for updates…..

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