In last night's (11/7/24) fascinating presentation about gravitational waves, Prof. Michael Coughlin mentioned the kilonova (merger of two neutron stars) that was detected in 2017. Apparently these are extremely rare since no more have been detected. Afterward I wondered whether there was any kind of remnant that could conceivably be detected by us, many years after the event. (I wish I had thought of this question soon enough to ask it during the meeting.) Looking up "kilonova remnant" in Google, I found an extremely technical paper claiming that this might be feasible with radio telescopes.
Presumably these remnants would contain vast amounts of gold and other precious heavy elements. If detectable, will this set off gold rushes by aliens? Okay, I suppose there are hundreds of reasons this would be impractical, but it might make for a good sci-fi story.
Kilonova remnant?
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Dick Jacobson
- Posts: 1425
- Joined: Fri Jun 04, 2004 9:21 pm
- Location: Cottage Grove, MN
Kilonova remnant?
30-inch homemade Newtonian with periscope
20-inch homemade equatorial Newtonian with periscope
14-inch homemade equatorial Newtonian
10-inch Newtonian that folds flat
6-inch Russian Maksutov-Newtonian on Vixen equatorial mount
Too many small scopes and binoculars to mention
20-inch homemade equatorial Newtonian with periscope
14-inch homemade equatorial Newtonian
10-inch Newtonian that folds flat
6-inch Russian Maksutov-Newtonian on Vixen equatorial mount
Too many small scopes and binoculars to mention