THE Gravity Discovery Centre in Gingin will host a free public lecture on ‘Neutron stars, gravitational waves and the origin of gold’ next week.
UWA’s Institute of Advanced Studies will coordinate the November 28 lecture by Professor Tsvi Piran, who is the Schwarzmann University chair at the Hebrew University’s Racah Institute of Physics.
In 1989 Prof Piran proposed that the mysterious gamma ray bursts seen daily by space gamma ray observatories were caused by the collision of pairs of neutron stars, each one the size of a city and heavier than the sun.
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READ NOWIn such events a vast amount of neutron rich matter would be thrown into space and undergo rapid fission like a vast atomic bomb, and in doing so would spread gold, platinum and other heavy atoms into space.
On August 17, Prof Piran’s prediction was proven correct and his talk will explain the science behind the recent discovery, its extraordinary significance, and how it has opened an era for multi-messenger astronomy.
Prof Piran is participating in the Australasian Conference of General Relativity and Gravitation at the Gingin Gravity Precinct this month.
What: free public lecture When: 6.45pm on Tuesday, November 28 Bookings: http://www.ias.uwa.edu.au/lectures/tsvi-piran
The GDC Observatory astronomer Richard Tonello will lead an astronomy evening following the public lecture.
Book a place at https://gravitycentre.rezdy.com/75224/night-visit.
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