Einstein’s theory of relativity predicts that orbiting stars generate gravitational waves (“ripples in spacetime”). In August of 2017, scientists detected for the first time gravitational waves from the merger of two orbiting neutron stars (neutron stars are the dense cores left over when massive stars explode at the end of their lives). This discovery initiated a world-wide search for an “afterglow” from the merger, using a wide range of telescopes on the ground and in space. Within hours, a fading glow of light, unlike that ever seen before, was discovered from a galaxy 100 million light years from Earth. We were witnessing, for the first time in the debris of this merger, the direct creation of the heaviest elements in the universe, including the precious metals (gold, silver, and platinum). In this talk, I will recount the amazing story of how gravitational waves pointed us to the origin of gold.
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