<p>In charts like <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nucleosynthesis#/media/File:Nucleosynthesis_periodic_table.svg" rel="nofollow noreferrer">this</a>, you'll see that a bunch of the heaviest elements mostly come from neutron star mergers. But what about the mass distribution of just the products of neutron star mergers? That is, how much of the stuff left over from a merger--excluding everything that falls into the newly formed black hole--becomes hydrogen, or iron, or gold?</p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2021-09-09T11:37:42.493Z
Good question. I suspect that it's hard to model accurately. We don't have a lot of data yet from neutron star merger observations, and my *guess* is that it's not easy to extract accurate quantities from that data.
PM 2Ring
CC BY-SA 4.0
2021-09-09T19:05:09.240Z
The LIGO gravitational waves detection verified that neutron stars merging  produce some of the heaviest elements. That is the stuff which can be detected during collision, excluding hydrogen or iron. A couple seconds detected gravitational wave signals, with not a lot of data.
Lariliss
CC BY-SA 4.0
2021-09-09T20:09:04.997Z
@Lariliss I don't see how looking at gravitational waves would be a good way to look at the composition of the remnants of a neutron star merger. I imagine spectroscopy would be a much better tool for that.
zucculent
CC BY-SA 4.0
2021-09-10T06:29:10.183Z
@zucculent, exactly you are right. Point is that it what was possible to have as an evidence of heavy elements, produced during the collision are gravitational waves. Without a possibility to extract accurate quantities and spectrum data.
Lariliss
<neutron-star><elemental-abundances><kilonova><merger>
What's the mass distribution of elements created in neutron star mergers?
zucculent
# What's the mass distribution of elements created in neutron star mergers?

(Asked by: username_0 on 2021-09-08)

In charts like [this](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nucleosynthesis#/media/File:Nucleosynthesis_periodic_table.svg), you'll see that a bunch of the heaviest elements mostly come from neutron star mergers. But what about the mass distribution of just the products of neutron star mergers? That is, how much of the stuff left over from a merger--excluding everything that falls into the newly formed black hole--becomes hydrogen, or iron, or gold?

**Tags:** neutron-star, elemental-abundances, kilonova, merger
> **Comments:**
> **username_1**: Good question. I suspect that it's hard to model accurately. We don't have a lot of data yet from neutron star merger observations, and my *guess* is that it's not easy to extract accurate quantities from that data.  
> **username_2**: The LIGO gravitational waves detection verified that neutron stars merging  produce some of the heaviest elements. That is the stuff which can be detected during collision, excluding hydrogen or iron. A couple seconds detected gravitational wave signals, with not a lot of data.  
> **username_0**: @Lariliss I don't see how looking at gravitational waves would be a good way to look at the composition of the remnants of a neutron star merger. I imagine spectroscopy would be a much better tool for that.  
> **username_2**: @zucculent, exactly you are right. Point is that it what was possible to have as an evidence of heavy elements, produced during the collision are gravitational waves. Without a possibility to extract accurate quantities and spectrum data.  

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## 0 answers

