First-seen neutron star collision creates light, gravitational waves and gold

CNN ^ | October 16, 2017 | Ashley Strickland

[C19fan]

For the first time, two neutron stars in a nearby galaxy have been observed engaging in a spiral death dance around one another until they collided. What resulted from that collision is being called an "unprecedented" discovery that is ushering in a new era of astronomy, scientists announced Monday.

[Nateman]

This really is a BIG DEAL. The event is generating thousands of scientific papers. One of the videos I watched showed some Astronomers grinning over the spectra results. It was a curve unlike anything they have ever seen before. Since a neutron star is essentially a giant atomic nucleus an event like this gets enormous nuclear chunks tossed out into space . Imagine extending the Periodic Chart of Elements way past anything our puny accelerators could ever make.

Another interesting result is the lack of neutrinos detected. The excuse is that the hot jet formed was not pointing our way but given the temperatures involved neutron emission should have been huge, yet nothing was seen here!