Free Astronomy Magazine November-December 2019

30 NOVEMBER-DECEMBER 2019 SPACE CHRONICLES First identification of a heavy element born from neutron star collision by ESO I n 2017, following the detection of gravitational waves passing the Earth, ESO pointed its tele- scopes in Chile, including the VLT, to the source: a neutron star merger named GW170817. Astronomers suspected that, if heavier elements did form in neutron star collisions, signatures of those elements could be detected in kilonovae, the explo- sive aftermaths of these mergers. This is what a team of European re-