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platoprime t1_je1n9ju wrote

Reply to comment by AuDHDiego in Is NaCl relatively common in the galaxy/universe? by PHealthy

Mergers of neutron stars are the probable primary source of heavier elements according to recent research.

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AuDHDiego t1_je1nh67 wrote

This is fascinating, and it's remarkable that we have all that many heavier elements, considering all that

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platoprime t1_je1orkq wrote

Yes it is! I absolutely love this stuff.

Estimates put the current count of neutron stars at one billion in our galaxy and a total of one hundred billion stars total. So around one percent of stars in our galaxy are neutron stars. Most stars are in binary orbits so taken all together it lines up with the distribution quite nicely I think. Plus remember it's by mass so one gold atom counts for as much as 79 hydrogen atoms. If we viewed it by atomic count instead of total mass heavy elements are even rarer than the graph implies.

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