A Forge Missing Hammers: Where Does Europium in the Milky Way Come From?
In 2017, the LIGO and Virgo detectors caught gravitational waves from the merger of two neutron stars. A kilonova flared: a brilliant cosmic explosion thought to forge the heaviest elements in the periodic table. Gold in jewelry, platinum in catalysts, europium in smartphone screens: all of it, according to a beautiful legend, came to us from such catastrophes.