Discovery of neutron star collision is ‘breakthrough’ of 2017: Science

The world’s first-ever detection of two faraway neutron stars colliding, causing a massive blast that rippled through the fabric of space and time, was judged the scientific breakthrough of 2017, the journal Science said Thursday.

The smashup of the two ultra-dense stars observed on August 17 “confirmed several key astrophysical models, revealed a birthplace of many heavy elements, and tested the general theory of relativity as never before,” said the report.

The blast, which occurred 130 million light-years away, is the kind of event that produces as much as half of the universe’s gold, platinum, uranium and mercury, experts said.

Shockwaves ran through the scientific community when the discovery was announced in October, after being detected by gravitational wave sensors in the US and Europe, and 70 telescopes and observatories around the world.

Bangalore Sathyaprakash from Cardiff University’s School of Physics and Astronomy recalled the moment as “the most exciting of my scientific life.”

The magazine’s annual rundown of the top advances of the past year also included the discovery of a new kind of orangutan, Pongo tapanuliensis, with just 800 believed to live in an isolated Indonesian forest.

Another was a second look at a skull unearthed from a Moroccan cave in 1961, showing that it was actually about 300,000 years old, a full 100,000 years older than early homo sapiens were previously known to exist.