Professor Duncan Brown on Finding a Collision of Two Neutron Stars

After a discovering a collision of neutron stars, scientists can now explain how heavy elements like gold and platinum are created. In Business Insider, Duncan Brown, the Charles Brightman professor of physics explained how this new discovery helped fuel new thinking.

“Some of the heavy elements are made in supernova explosions, but it turns out this can’t explain the abundances,” he said. “They didn’t appear to be coming from supernova explosions, and so people have wondered for a long time where they came from.” Now, they know.