Neutron capture can occur in clouds around the remains of missing stars, but scientists have believed that this process can also take place only up to a certain level, and that heavier elements such as gold, platinum, thorium and uranium can only occur in kilonova.Finally, observing the kilonova with the help of the “Very Large Telescope” in Chile gave them the opportunity to confirm this - scientists determined that there were so many free neutrons in the cloud of gases created during the collision of neutron stars that atoms of heavier elements simply “swallowed” them one by one. The first spectroscopic evidence that heavy elements are created by the merger of two neutron stars has been found by an international team of scientists. That caused acceleration of the process many times over, and the atoms captured far more neutrons. If a short-duration GRB leads to a kilonova, then it could be a source of heavy, neutron-rich atoms. There are many models that attempt to predict the observed behavior of a kilonova. Forging heavy elements in the kilonova (neutron star collision) 1 day ago . Discovery image of the optical counterpart to GW170817. Copyright © needforscience.com Over the length of its 4km arms, LIGO can detect a change in length equal to about one ten-thousandth the radius of an atomic nucleus! We do not expect such an electromagnetic counterpart from black holes, but we do in the case when two neutron stars collide. The brilliant red colour is some fireworks are a result of the burning of strontium salts.Since research into nucleosynthesis began, scientists have discovered most of the major nuclear forges responsible for the creation of the elements, except for one, rapid neutron capture or the r-process.“This is the final stage of a decades-long chase to pin down the origin of the elements,” explains Watson. Now, for the first time, astronomers have identified a newly formed element in a neutron star kilonova. A more promising counterpart is the so-called “kilonova.” This transient is similar to a faint, short-lived supernova, but is powered by the radioactive decay of heavy r-process elements. The intense dynamics of the kilonova also produce heavy elements, seeding them throughout the Universe. This is the equivalent of measuring the distance from Earth to the nearest star to the accuracy of a human hair, making LIGO the most precise ruler ever built. Gravitational waves occur when a mass experiences an asymmetric acceleration. Now astrophysicists have finally proved that such collisions actually occur, and analyses of the light from the kilonova tells a story of large amounts of heavy elements that … When it comes to celestial bodies and phenomena in our planetary system, we can observe them with telescopes and probes sent to distant ends of the solar system.
Creation of many elements in space occurs in stars and supernovae, but physicists have so far been unable to confirm where the heaviest ones are created. C.J.H. and A.K. It was in the analysis of these spectra that the team of European scientists discovered the suggestion of the presence of heavy elements. In addition, the light of the kilonova showed that these tiny stars of enormous density are almost entirely composed of neutrons - otherwise, the gases created by their explosions would not have enough neutrons to form heavy elements.The discovery of a smithy of heavy elements hidden in kilonova not only filled an enormous gap in our knowledge of the formation of chemical elements, but also marked the beginning of a new era in astronomy - the era of so-called “multichannel astronomy”. Our analysis covers the discovery of the first kilonova associated with a gravitational wave event, the properties of both the relativistic gamma-ray burst and the r-process kilonova, and the host galaxy environment where the merger occurred. Most chemical elements heavier than helium were born in the death throes of stars; the explosive energy of a supernova is responsible for generating most of the contents of the periodic table. Therefore, it is necessary to first do the “homework” and all the necessary measurements in the laboratory, so that the team knows what they are actually looking for.