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[slate]

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[slate]

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Well

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what we saw was the result of the merging of two neutron stars

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very compact stars. When they merged they created

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an explosion in space-time. Those ripples went out

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across the universe as gravitational waves and were detected on

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Earth. The matter involved was heated up to a very high temperature

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which gave off gamma rays and other forms of light. And in that

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fireball, the matter was fused into gold and platinum

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and other heavy elements that were diffused back into the interstellar

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medium. Almost everything I've said is the first time we've ever seen that

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happen.

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[slate] That is absolutely what I'm saying

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We think that all the gold in the universe was formed in explosions of this kind.

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After the explosion happens, the gold is spread out into

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gas and dust of the interstellar medium. Later on that gas and dust

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collapses into brand new stars and brand new planetary systems

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and on those planets there will be gold to be mined and formed into

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the rings on your finger.

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[slate] this is about the fourth time we've seen gravitational waves

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a merger in the distant

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universe. This is the first time we've seen light from the event

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and the combination of the gravitational waves and the light

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that seen by telescopes all over the world and in orbit

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has allowed us to deduce exactly what was happening and that's how we

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for the first time seeing the formation of gold, platinum and other heavy metals

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elements actually happening. It's confirmed our ideas of what

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must be going on but we had no direct confirmation before

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of this event.

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[slate] Gravitational waves are ripples

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in space-time that are caused when two black holes

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or neutron stars merge. Some of their mass is converted

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into gravitational energy that then goes spreading out across the universe

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like ripples and it

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provides us with information that's very different than the information we get

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from light so we can learn things about the universe that we didn't know before

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