중성자별
Neutron star collisions are now believed to be the main source of r-process elements. Being neutron-rich by definition, collisions of this type had been suspected of being a source of such elements, but definitive evidence was difficult to obtain. In 2017 strong evidence emerged, when LIGO, VIRGO, the Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope and INTEGRAL, along with a collaboration of many observatories around the world, detected both gravitational wave and electromagnetic signatures of a likely neutron star collision, GW170817, and subsequently detected signals of numerous heavy elements such as gold as the ejected degenerate matter decays and cools.