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Title: New Gold-Creating Phenomenon Confirmed in Space Using 2004 Neutron
Star Flare Readings

Link: https://science.slashdot.org/story/25/05/03/0...

Slashdot reader sciencehabit shares this excerpt from a new article in
Science magazine: At first, astronomers knew of only one cosmic scenario that
fit the bill for the violent formation of "jewelry shop" elements [gold and
sliver]: the collision of two ultra-dense stellar corpses called neutron
stars. Now, a second has stepped onto the scene. As they report this week in
The Astrophysical Journal Letters, researchers have discovered signatures of
this heavy element formation - called the r-process - in a giant flare first
detected from a highly magnetic neutron star in 2004. The flare, which
released more energy than our Sun does in a million years as it spewed
electrically charged material, has remained shrouded in mystery since its
discovery 20 years ago. Researchers quickly traced the outburst to a nearby
magnetar, a special breed of neutron star whose magnetic fields are trillions
times stronger than Earth's. But ten minutes after the massive flare, a
second, fainter signal inexplicably came from the same star. More r-process
sources may still be looming in the dark. The new study accounts for about
10% of the Milky Way's heavy elements, suggesting that astronomers will have
to scour the cosmos for even more places where the r-process is hiding. One
potential spot is a rare type of supernova that births rapidly rotating
neutron stars, says says Anirudh Patel, the new study's lead author and an
astronomer at Columbia University. He hopes that with more observations,
astronomers will be able to sharpen that picture.... "It's humbling to
realize that these were made in such extreme astrophysical environments."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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