Photos of the three Nobel prize winners side-by-side. © Molly Riley/AFP/Getty Images.
From Getty Images / Photographer: Molly Riley / Collection: AFP.
While this book was going through production, it was announced that the Nobel Prize in Physics for 2017 had been awarded to Rainer Weiss, Barry C. Barish, and Kip S. Thorne for leading LIGO to its historic discovery.
Photos of the three Nobel prize winners side-by-side. © Molly Riley/AFP/Getty Images.
From Getty Images / Photographer: Molly Riley / Collection: AFP.
On August 17, 2017, a little less than two years after the first detection of gravity wave, another burst of gravity wave was detected from the merger of two neutron stars. Since neutron stars, in contrast to black holes, do emit electromagnetic waves, the event, cataloged as GW170817, was also seen by various observatories tuned to different regions of the electromagnetic spectrum. The era of “multi-messenger astrophysics” has dawned.
It has long been known theoretically that elements heavier than* iron (Fe:26) were synthesized in neutron star mergers. Some of these elements, such as silver (Ag:47), platinum (Pt:78), gold (Au:79), and uranium (U:92) have played, and continue to play, important roles in human affairs.
* The number after the scientific symbol indicates the number of protons in the corresponding atomic nucleus.