Two neutron stars collided about 1 billion light years away, releasing a rare element

Astronomers recently came across tellurium, an elementrarer than platinum on Earth, about 1 billion light years away. The observation was done using NASA's powerful James Webb Space Telescope (JWST).

It is believed that the element was created after the violent collision of two neutron stars that were booted out of their galaxy.

The explosion unleashed a burst of gamma rays more than one million times brighter than the Milky Way. Gamma-ray bursts are short emissions of the most energetic form of light. This explosion blasted material into space that formed the rare element tellurium and others known as actinides and lanthanides.

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The findings may contribute to a better understanding of the conditions in which precious chemical elements are created in the universe.

"Just over 150 years since Dmitri Mendeleev wrote down the periodic table of elements, we are now finally in the position to start filling in those last blanks of understanding where everything was made, thanks to Webb," study lead author Andrew Levan of Radboud University in the Netherlands and lead author of the study said in a statement.

Scientists suspect the merging neutron stars may have formerly been big, garden-variety stars that were gravitationally imprisoned in their native galaxy. It seems that one of the stars shot out of its galaxy and landed 120,000 light-years away when it neared the end of its existence and burst into a supernova. The second star followed suit.

Scientists suggest that despite being violently expelled from their galaxy, the neutron-star pair remained gravitationally bonded. Many hundred million years later, on March 7 of this year, to be accurate, we witnessed their merging into one body.

"Webb provides a phenomenal boost and may find even heavier elements," said study co-author Ben Gompertz, a professor at the University of Birmingham in the UK. The observatory "has certainly opened the door to do a lot more, and its abilities will be completely transformative for our understanding of the universe."

The violent cosmic merger, known to astronomers as a kilonova, sparked a gamma-ray burst (GRB) witnessed by scientists on March 7 — the second brightest GRB since the search for these phenomena began 50 years ago. NASA's Fermi satellite observatory was the first to see the glow, which lasted a record 200 seconds. In barely two seconds, similar lights from earlier star mergers dispersed

Kilonovae are extremely rare; scientists have witnessed only one other such event in sufficient detail to deduce elements potentially made in the explosion. While supernovae, or exploding stars, produce elements like iron and nickel, heavier elements seem to be best formed by more severe neutron-star collisions.

They are also difficult to observe, but astronomers look for short gamma-ray bursts, which only last about two seconds.

(With inputs from agencies)

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