Giant cosmic explosion creates the heavy metals needed for life

The spectacle is first time the James Webb Space Telescope has detected the merging of two stars
ESA/Euclid/Euclid Consortium/Nasa/PA Media
Nuray Bulbul1 November 2023

A gigantic cosmic explosion caused by the merger of two stars has created the necessary elements required for life, according to an international research team.

The event released as much energy in the form of gamma ray bursts (GRB) in a matter of seconds as the Sun will do over its entire 10-billion-year lifetime. GRBs are the most powerful phenomena that have been observed since the Big Bang itself.

The research team at the University of Warwick's Department of Physics examined GRB 230307A, a neutron star merger that occurred in a spiral galaxy about a billion light years away, using several high-tech telescopes including the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST). It is the first time that the JWST has seen a kilonova, otherwise known as the merging of two stars.

Astronomers calculate that 300 times the Earth's mass of tellurium were generated during the explosion. Tellurium is one of the rarest elements on Earth, and has been utilised in solar cells, vulcanised rubber, glass and ceramic tinting, rewritable CDs and DVDs, and oil refining as a catalyst.

Nucleosynthesis, the process of creating new atomic nuclei (the cores of atoms), is so intense that it can fling out elements and can create some of the heaviest, such as gold, platinum and uranium.

It's also possible that some of the debris released by the explosion contains other elements that are essential to life on Earth, such as thorium and iodine.

Professor Danny Steeghs of the University of Warwick's Department of Physics said: “This is an important next step in our understanding of the role binary neutron star mergers play in terms of populating the periodic table of elements.

“It complements the breakthrough achieved a few years ago thanks to gravitational wave detections, exploiting the step change that JWST now represents.”

“It might be difficult to overstate how bright it was,” said Michael Fausnaugh, co-author of the study.

“In gamma-ray astronomy, you’re usually counting individual photons. But so many photons came in that the detector couldn’t distinguish individual ones. It was kind of like the dial hit the max.”

Because of the light show's duration and brilliance, astronomers were able to triangulate its location, which turned out to be the Mensa constellation close to the south celestial pole.

At a distance of roughly 900 million light-years, the event showed that its emissions abruptly changed from blue to red wavelengths, a characteristic that is typical of collisions between neutron stars.

Later, the JWST was aimed at the site to conduct a more thorough investigation. The GRB was unexpectedly found to be in intergalactic space, 120,000 light-years from the closest galaxy.

Researchers hope that this discovery is a step toward a new understanding of our universe and its inner workings.

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