We might have found a 'gold factory' in Milky Way
What's the story
A team of Chinese and US researchers has found a mysterious high-energy light in the Milky Way galaxy. They believe it could be the remnant of an extremely rare cosmic "gold factory." The phenomenon is thought to be the result of two neutron stars colliding. These dead stars are so dense that a teaspoon of their matter would weigh as much as a billion tons.
Stellar impact
How was the gold formed?
The collision of these neutron stars is believed to have been as bright as Jupiter in the sky.
The violent event released atoms and a flood of neutrons, which were absorbed by the atoms to form some of the universe's heaviest elements, including gold, platinum, and uranium.
Meanwhile, the wreckage from this stellar collision collapsed into a black hole.
Research
Research team and findings
The glowing cloud left behind by this stellar collision is still small and bright, indicating that it is a young remnant.
This suggests that the violent cosmic event likely occurred less than 1,000 years ago.
The research was conducted by scientists from the Chinese Academy of Sciences in Beijing and the University of Notre Dame in Indiana.
Their findings were published on preprint server arXiv but are yet to be peer-reviewed.