中子星在苏醒中创造出黄金和白金

This illustration shows the hot, dense, expanding cloud of debris stripped from neutron stars just before they collided. This cloud produces a kilonova; that is an astronomical event that occurs when two neutron stars or a neutron star and a black hole merge into each other. This cloud shows the visible and infrared light. Within this neutron-rich debris, large quantities of some of the universe’s heaviest elements were forged, including hundreds of Earth masses of gold and platinum.

Image Credit: NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center/CI Lab

该图显示了中子星碰撞之前就从中子星上剥离下来的炽热、密集、膨胀的碎片云。这朵云产生了千新星；当两个中子星或一个中子星和一个黑洞相互融合时，就会发生天文学事件。此云显示可见光和红外光。在这些富含中子的碎片中，形成了大量的宇宙中最重的元素，包括数百个地球质量的金和铂。

影像来源：NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center/CI Lab