Wouldn’t you rather hear about things that happened not yesterday, not during the period of November 2016 through today, but zillions and quadrillions of years ago?
It’s exciting. It doesn’t cause even more agita than we’re already inflicted with. Indeed, it’s sort of like a very powerful anti-acid.
Enough of that. Let’s thank 538 Significant Digits for telling us how a bunch of astrophysicists are once more saving our viscera from burning up:
4.6 billion years ago
A team of astrophysicists analyzing meteorite isotopes and simulations of the Milky Way have determined some valuable metals — including gold and platinum — were created by a collision between two neutron stars 1,000 light years away and 4.6 billion years ago. To paraphrase Carl Sagan, we, and our jewelry, are star stuff. [CNET]