How Gravitational Waves Pointed Us to the Origin of Gold
- Speaker
-
Brian Metzger, Ph.D.Senior Research Scientist, Compact Objects, CCA, Columbia University
Simons Foundation Lectures are free public colloquia related to basic science and mathematics. These high-level talks are intended for professors, students, postdocs and business professionals, but interested people from the metropolitan area are welcome as well.

By clicking to watch this video, you agree to our privacy policy.
Two summers ago, the LIGO interferometers detected gravitational waves from coalescing neutron stars for the first time. (Neutron stars are the dense cores left over when massive stars explode at the end of their lives). This discovery initiated a frenzied search for a visual ‘afterglow’ to the merger using dozens of telescopes on the ground and in space. Within hours, fading blue light, unlike that ever seen before, was discovered from a galaxy 100 million light-years away.
In this lecture, Brian Metzger will discuss the monumental importance of the first detection of gravitational waves from coalescing neutron stars. The August 2017 discovery initiated a frenzied search for a visual ‘afterglow’ to the merger using dozens of telescopes on the ground and in space. Within hours, fading blue light, unlike anything we’ve ever seen before, was discovered from a galaxy 100 million light-years away. From the debris of the merger, he and other scientists witnessed directly for the first time the creation of the heaviest elements in the universe, such as gold, silver and platinum.