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Great article about the 2017 neutron star merger


Strange

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Good summary of the observations at the time (gravitational waves and all electromagnetic spectrum) and what has been observed since then, including a relativistic jet (confirming the creation of a black hole).

Quote

about 1046 atoms of gold were created, or ten quadrillion times as much as we've mined in all of human history 

Or about twice the mass of all the world's oceans.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/startswithabang/2019/02/21/merging-neutron-stars-made-an-unstoppable-jet-and-it-moves-at-nearly-the-speed-of-light/

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Anyone have a really big vacuum cleaner with a really long hose lol 

nice overview its decently done what is really cool is the added details from all the additional detection. I can see this event being studied with a swath of papers and related studies resulting from the data it found in its added details.

Edited by Mordred
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7 hours ago, Raider5678 said:

Out of curiosity, was any plutonium created? Or is that not created when stars merge?

It is in the article:

Quote

Almost immediately, we learned:

  • what the masses (about 1.3 Suns) and distances (about 130 million light-years) of the neutron stars were,
  • what they became after the merger (a rapidly spinning neutron star that collapsed to a black hole in less than a second),
  • how much of the mass became a black hole (about 95%),
  • and what happened to the rest of the mass (it became the heaviest elements in the periodic table, including gold, platinum, uranium and plutonium).

 

 

Edited by Eise
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6 hours ago, Raider5678 said:

Out of curiosity, was any plutonium created?

Yes, it lists plutonium as one of the elements created.

It also says that there was a period after the initial event where the majority of the light came from the radioactive decay of elements.

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8 hours ago, Raider5678 said:

Out of curiosity, was any plutonium created? Or is that not created when stars merge?

If there is created Uranium 238, there must be created trace of Plutonium 238, because one of rare decay modes of Uranium 238 is via double beta decay minus.

Isotope Uranium-238
Protons 92 Neutrons 146
Mass 238.051 [u]
Uranium-238 -> Thorium-234 + alpha + 4.26992 MeV
Uranium-238 -> Plutonium-238 + e- + e- + Ve + Ve + 1.14415 MeV

 

Edited by Sensei
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