To wonder how anyone can read this without their head exploding!

[lemonsandlimes123]

Not literally obviously! But the ideas and scale of space I just find completely mind blowing! After a few minutes I just have to think about something else!

www.theguardian.com/science/2017/oct/16/astronomers-witness-neutron-stars-collide-global-rapid-response-event-ligo

They aren't saying that that explosion 130 million light years away made the gold we can find on Earth. They're saying that collisions like the one they've now seen were probably what made gold and the other heavy elements, and they can back this up by detecting spectra (like fingerprints of light) from the heavy elements.

Yep, anything that got too near will have been trapped by the black hole. What's been detected is the gold etc a bit further out from the centre of the bang. (I think. Must re-read.)

This isn't the first neutron star collision in the universe. It's just the first one we've managed to watch this way. Also, I think heavy metals also form in "ordinary" supernovae when stars reach the ends of their lives.

Either way, the heavy metals on earth formed in some large explosion probably relatively near here, but billions of years ago before the Earth and Sun formed. The collision we've just seen formed heavy metals which may one day form part of another planet - but not ours.

ah I love the infinite monkey cage- they always have a 'non science' person on which is both great and necessary. The one with Ross Noble is hilarious. I was running whilst listening to it, and had to keep stopping and bending over because it turns out you can't run and laugh at the same time.

Human Universe by Brian Cox is also good for explaining to non scientists how they come up with theories, how they can tell stuff about stars so far off they've probably already died etc.

Incredible.
The thing about seeing stars that aren't there anymore is blowing my mind.

'Near here' is an interesting concept in itself, if we mean 'way before the Earth formed'!

Yes, heavy elements are thought to form in ordinary boring supernovae too. (I'm wondering who came up with 'kilonova' for this one as it sounds a bit ... medium-sized.)

Lancelottie - I did say relatively near. Compared to 130 million light years almost anything is relatively near.

According to Wikipedia the term "kilonova" was introduced in 2010 in a paper by Metzger et al. Apparently the energy range is around a thousand times higher than a nova. Agree it's not the coolest name...

I was saying this to dh. Something so far away the light only reaches us 130 million years after it happened - when dinosaurs roamed the earth. Totally blows my mind.

The collision we've just seen formed heavy metals which may one day form part of another planet - but not ours

You never know. They could have entered a wormhole.

I find this topic so disturbing, yet wonderful. The first four elements were present after the big bang. Elements up through magnesium were created in red giants. Elements up to iron, including the iron that makes our blood red, were created in supergiants, and the elements from iron to uranium, including the copper and zinc that some of our enzymes need, were created in supernovae. These atoms met one another in nebulae, on dust particles, and even in planets. When they did, chemical reactions took place. These reactions eventually led to life and then . . . us. So, the atoms that make us up were made in giant stars long, long ago, yet here we are enjoying every day things. Who said science was boring? (I'm a biochemist btw).

The beginning of the basis for potential time travel technology ;)

Love this thread

how come they weren't sucked into the black hole?

As for this part: They were thrown outwards from a point far enough from the centre, fast enough to escape. A black hole of a certain mass (or weight) has the same gravity as anything else of the same mass. The further an object is away, the lower the escape velocity, the speed required to escape. What makes a black hole special is that it's so small that an object can get close enough that the escape velocity would be the speed of light. That's the 'event horizon', the point of no return. But far enough outside that event horizon, the black hole is nothing special gravity-wise.

This is all beyond me I think I preferred the thread about the little boy that wanted to be a dog!

This is my view.

I have never been able to think about this stuff without getting v stressed and crying.

What an incredible thread.

That seems like a rather extreme reaction, @singadream. Is there something specific that worries you? A lot of popularisations of this kind of thing like to play up the dangers because that sells well. But a lot of it is like lions - probably fatal if you run into one, but pretty far down the list of things to worry about round here.

That seems like a rather extreme reaction, @singadream. Is there something specific that worries you? A lot of popularisations of this kind of thing like to play up the dangers because that sells well. But a lot of it is like lions - probably fatal if you run into one, but pretty far down the list of things to worry about round here.

All the whole how big space is and how did we come about and what is after space and what happens when we are gone. I used to lay awake as a teenager worrying about it. Then I learnt not to. I started again when I had kids.

charmedrose I have been thinking that, but i can't really put it into words.

Two amazing things for me;

1. Everything in the universe was once crammed into a space smaller than a pinhead - that's you, me, Mount Everest, Jupiter, meerkats, pom bears and all the rest.

1. Most youngsters these days would think of Kanye and Kardashian when the terms "two stars colliding" and "gold" are used in the same sentence. Sad.

Utterly fantastic thread. Completely awe inspiring and wonderful, thank you OP. My head is at risk of exploding but I no longer care!

its great when fantastic science makes the news and hopefully motivates another generation of young scientists to carry on expanding our understanding of the universe we live in

Atoms are mostly made of nothing, take out all the nothing and the world would fit in the palm of your hand.

That is just beautiful, Only!

It all makes me feel like my brain is as small as an atom, and mostly full of nothing. But then I don't understand electricity, so this is way, way beyond me.

I need a Ladybird-level book about astrophysics.

That there are as many stars as all the grains of sand on earth is mind blowing. Or as many cup fulls of water in all the oceans in the world equally so, and each star is millions of miles apart. It's beyond awesome.