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The Conversation USA

Astrophysicists trace the origin of valuable metals in space, from colliding stars to merging galaxies

  • Written by Simone Dichiara, Assistant Research Professor of Astrophysics, Penn State
imageThis artist’s impression shows two tiny but very dense neutron stars at the point at which they merge and explode.ESO/L. Calçada/M. Kornmesser, CC BY

Billions of light years away in a remote part of the universe, two neutron stars – the ultradense remnants of dead stars – collided. The catastropic cosmic event sent light...

Read more: Astrophysicists trace the origin of valuable metals in space, from colliding stars to merging...

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  1. Gifts from top 50 US philanthropists jumped to $22.4B in 2025 − Mike Bloomberg, Bill Gates and the estate of Paul Allen lead a list of the biggest givers
  2. Women of the Rosenstrasse protest challenged the Nazi regime for their detained Jewish husbands’ freedom – and won
  3. Making good choices when life gets messy – practical wisdom relies on human judgment, not rules
  4. Just thinking about tequila, whiskey or wine shifts your mindset – new research
  5. Higher buprenorphine doses help patients stay in opioid use disorder treatment, new study finds
  6. Why cloud service outages ripple across the internet – and the economy
  7. Iran war: 4 big questions that help clarify the future of the Middle East
  8. This Sunshine Week, Florida reflects an alarming national trend of blocking the public’s access to information
  9. 47 years of deep mistrust and misperception paved the way to war between Iran and the US − and complicate any negotiations
  10. From bodice rippers to romantasy, romance novels are dominating the book market – and rewriting women’s sexual power
  11. Mining the ocean floor: 5 deep-sea sources of critical minerals essential to technology, and the fragile marine life at risk
  12. Iraq war’s aftermath was a disaster for the US – the Iran war is headed in the same direction
  13. Alaska’s glacial lakes are expanding, increasing the risk of destructive outburst floods
  14. US is less prone to oil price shocks than in past decades
  15. Mobile clinics offer a practical way to improve health care access in maternity care deserts
  16. Why do mountaintops stay snowy, even though they’re closer to the Sun?
  17. Social media can draw attention to atrocities – a key factor in reducing risk of recurrence
  18. What James Madison can teach Americans about religious freedom today
  19. Why do mountaintops stay snowy?
  20. What does the appendix do? Biologists explain the complicated evolution of this inconvenient organ
  21. Abandoned Pennsylvania mines and waste-heat recycling could make the state’s massive new data centers far more sustainable
  22. I’ve studied MAGA rhetoric for a decade, and this is what I see in Hegseth’s boasts, action-movie one-liners and gloating over dominance
  23. Silicone wristbands can help scientists track people’s exposure to pollutants like ‘forever chemicals’
  24. Big beautiful refund? 5 tax code changes that may put more money in your pocket
  25. Arming a Kurdish insurgency would be a risky endeavor – for both the US and Iran’s minority Kurds
  26. War in Middle East brings uncertainty and higher energy costs to already weakening US economy
  27. China’s muted response over war in Iran reflects Beijing’s delicate calculus as a concerned onlooker
  28. How Instagram addictiveness lawsuit could reshape social media – platform design meets product liability
  29. Today’s obsession with authenticity isn’t new – being true to yourself has troubled philosophers for centuries
  30. Venezuela’s fragile environment faces rising risks as US pushes for oil and critical minerals and illegal gold mining spreads
  31. When Washington and the states are in conflict, the ultimate winner is not always certain
  32. Telehealth is widely used by older adults insured by Medicare, new research shows
  33. Public health needs steady budgets – and federal funding uncertainty causes real harms, even if the money is later restored
  34. Family-friendly workplaces are great − but ‘families of 1’ get ignored
  35. Measuring poverty on a spectrum instead of an arbitrary line conveys a more accurate picture of inequality
  36. Trump offered a restrictive deal to universities that almost all rejected – but the Compact for Academic Excellence in Higher Education may not be entirely dead
  37. How does Iran go about selecting a new supreme leader? And who is in the running?
  38. Persian Gulf desalination plants could become military targets in regional war
  39. Researchers are combining drones and AI to make removing land mines faster and safer
  40. Why are some stars always visible while others come and go with the seasons?
  41. How Denver’s Northeast Park Hill community reduced youth violence by 75%
  42. Operational secrecy kept the US from making evacuation plans – and that means Americans in the Mideast could wait days
  43. Billions of dollars, decades of progress spent eliminating devastating diseases may be lost with undoing of USAID
  44. We designed an AI tutor that helps college students reason rather than give them answers
  45. Nearly a third of Pennsylvania gamblers are at risk of problem gambling − but few seek treatment
  46. 2025 was hotter than it should have been – 5 influences and a dirty surprise offer clues to what’s ahead
  47. GLP-1 drugs may fight addiction across every major substance, according to a study of 600,000 people
  48. Hezbollah − degraded, weakened but not yet disarmed − destabilizes Lebanon once again
  49. When unpaid cooking, cleaning and child care get a dollar value, income inequality in the US shrinks – but the gap has grown since 1965
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