When Neutron Stars collide !

[Kostas]

Always fascinating

http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-w...-neutron-stars



Get this -

"That debris is strange stuff. It's gold and platinum, but it's mixed in with what you'd call just regular radioactive waste, and there's this big radioactive waste cloud that just starts mushrooming out from the merger site," Kasen says. "It starts out small, about the size of a small city, but it's moving so fast — a few tenths of the speed of light — that after a day it's a cloud the size of the solar system."

According to his estimates, this neutron star collision produced around 200 Earth masses of pure gold, and maybe 500 Earth masses of platinum. "It's a ridiculously huge amount on human scales," Kasen says. He personally has a platinum wedding ring and notes that "it's crazy to think that these things that seem very far out and kind of exotic actually impact the world and us in kind of intimate ways."

Who's coming with me to get some , that's an insane amount of bling!

[Knappo 1307]

I'll get the keys, let's go......

[uscmatt99]

Crazy that it happened 130 million years ago. Wonder if it all ended up in easy to harvest globs. Then it may be worth it to develop a wormhole to get out there.

[AzPaul]

I hate it when my Earth sized masses of gold and platinum get all mixed in with radioactive waste.

[SearChart]

Some interesting additional information: