Richard Klemm, Ph.D.

January 25th

Professor
Department of Physics
University of Central Florida

Observation of the Astronomical Philosopher’s Stone

The question of why there are heavy elements such as gold, silver, and uranium on the Earth has been a mystery until 2017. From detailed simulations of colliding black holes, the largest nucleus of an element that could be obtained is that of iron, which precludes the existence of silver and gold, not to mention uranium, as the number of protons and neutrons of these elements exceed those of iron. 

The simultaneous observation in 2017 of the emissions at frequencies ranging from that of radio waves to that of x-rays from the collision of two neutron stars 130 million light years away from the Earth, combined with the observation of a surrounding cloud of gold consisting of 40-100 Earth masses has now confirmed the existence of the astronomical philosopher’s stone: colliding neutron stars!

RSVP here: http://sciences.ucf.edu/cafe/rsvp/