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Punjab-origin astrophysicist at UK varsity helps unravel universe mystery
A kilonova is the merger of two dense neutron stars and is important because their explosions are believed to form the heaviest elements in the periodic table, including most of the gold, platinum and uranium found on earth.
An Indian-origin astrophysicist from the University of Sheffield in the UK is part of a team of scientists who have helped bring humanity one step closer to understanding how the heaviest chemical elements are created in the universe with the help of a high-end camera.
Professor Vik Dhillon, from the University of Sheffield’s department of physics and astronomy, who leads the ULTRACAM project, said the camera is the first instrument to pinpoint the location of the gamma-ray burst that indicated the start of the kilonova explosion.
A kilonova is the merger of two dense neutron stars and is important because their explosions are believed to form the heaviest elements in the periodic table, including most of the gold, platinum and uranium found on earth.
“Our camera ULTRACAM was the first instrument to pinpoint the location of the gamma-ray burst, the second brightest one ever observed, that indicated the start of the kilonova explosion,” said Dhillon.
“This is only the second secure kilonova that has been found. Kilonovae are particularly important because it is where most of the heaviest elements in the periodic table are believed to be produced, including gold platinum and uranium, for example. This means we are now one step closer to understanding how the heaviest chemical elements are created in the universe,” he said.
The discovery allows scientists to trigger other telescopes around the world for follow-up observations, including the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST). In the findings published in the ‘Nature’ journal this week, the scientists including those at the University of Sheffield observed the tell-tale red light from the kilonova, due to the absorption of blue light by the heavy elements produced in the explosion.
The presence of heavy elements was confirmed by observations with the JWST, which discovered tellurium in the infrared spectrum of the kilonova. Tellurium is next to iodine in the periodic table, implying significant quantities of iodine – essential for life on Earth – were also formed in the explosion.
