(STAR WARS THEME PLAYS)
VOICEOVER: Long, long ago...
Like, we're talking a really
long time ago, guys.
Like 130 million years ago.
Carry on.
VOICEOVER: In a galaxy,
far, far away...
Like, really far away, guys.
Like, we are talking
this many kilometres.
And that is a number
that I can't even say.
Sorry.
(VOICEOVER CLEARS THROAT)
Two neutron stars
were hatching a plan,
knowing full well the results
might be explosive.
I know that sounds like flowery
language, guys, but it's not...
VOICEOVER: Hey! Shh!
I'm telling this story.
Neutron stars are stars that have
reached the end of their lives
and exploded in what's called
a supernova.
The core they leave behind, which
is about the size of a small city,
is called a neutron star.
These stars are so dense
that just a teaspoon of one
would be 900 times heavier
than the biggest pyramid on earth.
Because they're so dense, they have
plenty of gravitational pull
and that's what's been dragging
these stars towards each other
over billions of years
and finally caused them to collide.
Astronomers have been wanting
to look at the collision
of two neutron stars for decades,
but have never been able to find one
in sufficient time to look at it.
So, how did they track down something
in the galaxy so far, far away?
The clue was gravitational waves.
You see, gravity travels in waves
just like light and sound.
Albert Einstein predicted their
existence more than 100 years ago.
But he was only proven right
last year,
thanks to machines in the US and
Italy built to detect gravity waves.
Ladies and gentlemen, we have
detected gravitational waves.
We did it!
In fact, the scientist who build them
has been awarded a Nobel Peace Prize.
Once the initial discovery was made,
astronomers from all over the world,
including Australia,
teamed up to track down
where the explosion was coming from.
We have, for the first time,
seen both gravitational waves
and the light from the collision
of two dense, dead stars
called neutron stars.
And they'll keep their eyes
glued to the telescopes to see
what happens in the aftermath
of the neutron star collision.
Scientists are calling this
a game changer
because it's given us
heaps of new information
about how the universe works.
It confirms another
one of Einstein's theories
that the speed of gravity is the same
as the speed of light.
Scientists also reckon
they now have proof
that some rare elements on earth,
like gold, came from exploding
neutron stars.
This is my great-grandfather's
gold watch.
It is about 100 years old.
The gold in this watch
was very likely produced
in the collision
of two neutron stars.
Wow!
I guess that means there's a whole
lot more gold out there now.
So...
..if you know a way to get me
and my wheelbarrow
130 million light-years
through the galaxy and back today,
get in touch.
