The Collision of stars and falling in love on a park bench in early May
Gold is not just rare on Earth, it is rare in our universe. That’s because the super novas that created almost all of what we see and touch on Earth were still not powerful enough to create gold. To create gold you need a very special kind of star called a neutron star.
This type of star is one of the rarest celestial objects in the universe because you would need a dying star to collapse in just the right conditions to create it. Yet the sheer power of a collapsing neutron star by itself is still not enough to create gold.
To create gold, the universe would need to have not one, but two neutron stars - and smash them together.
Eons ago, somewhere in our corner of the universe this is exactly what happened. Two neutron stars set on a collision course unimaginably long ago, caught each other in a gravitational death spiral.
The two smashed into each other with such force that it created a black hole. Escaping the black hole along with a spray of gamma radiation is a new material never before seen in our part of the galaxy.
Every single speck of gold on Earth was created in that singular event, vented out the guts of that that black hole. These rings we wear on our hands are not only rare on Earth, they are rare in the universe.
What's even rarer still are Human beings: the cosmic twists of fate that allowed us to not just be born, but to be born in this part of the universe that has gold. To hold this material in our hands, to contemplate it, to set sail in search of it, to write stories about it, to die for it to profess our love with it.
This gold we wear on our hands somehow expands and diminishes us at the same time. Connecting the collision of stars with falling in love on a park bench in early May.
This type of star is one of the rarest celestial objects in the universe because you would need a dying star to collapse in just the right conditions to create it. Yet the sheer power of a collapsing neutron star by itself is still not enough to create gold.
To create gold, the universe would need to have not one, but two neutron stars - and smash them together.
Eons ago, somewhere in our corner of the universe this is exactly what happened. Two neutron stars set on a collision course unimaginably long ago, caught each other in a gravitational death spiral.
The two smashed into each other with such force that it created a black hole. Escaping the black hole along with a spray of gamma radiation is a new material never before seen in our part of the galaxy.
Every single speck of gold on Earth was created in that singular event, vented out the guts of that that black hole. These rings we wear on our hands are not only rare on Earth, they are rare in the universe.
What's even rarer still are Human beings: the cosmic twists of fate that allowed us to not just be born, but to be born in this part of the universe that has gold. To hold this material in our hands, to contemplate it, to set sail in search of it, to write stories about it, to die for it to profess our love with it.
This gold we wear on our hands somehow expands and diminishes us at the same time. Connecting the collision of stars with falling in love on a park bench in early May.
