In the beginning of the course, we talked about the scientific method. One of the
remarkable insights of ancient scientists was that the Universe is knowable, but we
also saw how our knowledge is always provisional, with new observations pointing us
towards a better understanding of nature that supersedes out earlier models.
Read these articles in the Washington Post from July 2013 and the New York Times
from October 2017: “Origin of gold is likely in rare neutron-star
collisions” and “LIGO Detects Fierce Collision of Neutron Stars for the First Time” .
The theory in these news stories are based on research papers by Berger et al. (2013)
and Kasen et al. (2013), but for our purposes, the linked Washington Post article, the
New York Times article, and the lectures about the life cycles of massive stars will be
sufficient.
Explain to an interested uncle or aunt where heavy elements come from. Touch on
why regular stellar fusion does not lead to the production of heavier elements, explain
the Iron catastrophe (in stars not the earth), and outline the origin of heavier
elements in supernovae (kilonovae). Provide a brief introduction to the idea of a
neutron star. Refer to the provided news reports to show how our understanding of
astrophysics is still being refined. (Note the role of different telescopes in this study!)
