Cosmic Alchemy and Stellar Gold?

An interesting story about the merging of neutron stars (who did not bother to consult the Federal Trade Commission on their merger) involved some interesting information on their history and detection. This necessitates material on gravity waves, and some of Uncle Albert Einstein's work. From there, we were given some Big Bang cosmogony, chemistry, and chemistry's weird great grandfather that nobody likes to talk about: alchemy.

The Alchemist / David Teniers the Younger

Way back yonder in medieval times, some folks were attempting sciencey stuff by attempting to convert base metals (copper, lead, tin, and so forth) into gold. Imagine the devastating impact on economies if they succeeded! Alchemy was distantly related to chemistry for reasons that should seem obvious.

We get exceptionally dense neutron stars commencing to merge, and the interaction supposedly produced a passel of gold. Problem is, it's all based on Big Bang presuppositions on the origin of the universe, and subsequent cosmology on the formation of the stars, and ultimately, you and me. The ideas may look good to materialistic mathematicians, but it is not science. There is nothing testable, repeatable, observable, and all those other things required of a valid scientific theory. Stars exploding, metals forming, neutron stars making gold, a bunch of unknowns, life evolving — quite a few tricks to train in that pony, old son. Best to believe what God's Word says and leave behind the silly antics.

On October 16, 2017, two press conferences generated much interest when they announced the detection of two neutron stars merging. What particularly caught the public's attention was the claim that this event produced perhaps 10 times the earth’s mass in gold. How much of this story is established fact and what parts are conjectures? And what does this mean? Let me sort through this.

To read the rest and get a good science lesson, click on "Spinning Stardust into Gold".





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