你很可能有一些黃金做的物品，例如結(jié)婚戒指、項(xiàng)鏈、或是高曾祖母傳下來的紀(jì)念品。也許你甚至就帶著它們。不過你可曾想過，黃金從哪里來？

幾十年來，科學(xué)家都在思考這個(gè)問題——如今我們知道了一個(gè)有趣的答案：它來自2億年前碰撞的兩顆中子星。

這次碰撞產(chǎn)生的波動(dòng)在空間中傳播，于上周日早晨被激光干涉引力波天文臺(tái)（Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory, LIGO）所觀測到。該科研機(jī)構(gòu)的創(chuàng)始人在本月早些時(shí)候還獲得了諾貝爾物理學(xué)家。這個(gè)組織宣布，碰撞事件解釋了元素周期表中一些最重的元素的起源，其中包括金、鉑和碘——碘是人類生命中的必需物質(zhì)。

LIGO的成員、雪城大學(xué)（Syracuse University）物理學(xué)家、本次發(fā)現(xiàn)的核心人物鄧肯·布朗表示，這一發(fā)現(xiàn)真正令人興奮之處，在于提供了有關(guān)宇宙起源和物質(zhì)結(jié)構(gòu)的線索。他對《財(cái)富》（Fortune）表示：“這是人類知識(shí)上的重大進(jìn)步。”

布朗相信，中子星碰撞可能還有助于解釋現(xiàn)在主流的宇宙形成理論——通俗地說就是“大爆炸”理論：宇宙中的所有物質(zhì)曾經(jīng)都存在于一個(gè)密度無限大的奇點(diǎn)中，這個(gè)奇點(diǎn)在大約136億年前爆炸，形成了我們現(xiàn)在所知的宇宙。

科學(xué)家試圖進(jìn)一步了解“大爆炸”的重要途徑之一，就是觀察其他天體的爆炸和碰撞。至今為止，LIGO只觀察到了四次這樣的碰撞（這會(huì)引發(fā)空間中的引力“波動(dòng)”，從而會(huì)被我們探測到），這些碰撞都與黑洞有關(guān)。

不過，布朗解釋道，黑洞的問題在于，它們是“黑”的，沒有什么可以觀測的信息。而科學(xué)家上周日早上觀測到的爆炸，則是“一次相當(dāng)壯觀的展覽”，讓科學(xué)家了解到了重元素（包括金和鉑）的形成，獲得了許多素材，從而向終極目標(biāo)——搞清我們?nèi)绾蝸淼浆F(xiàn)在——而邁進(jìn)。（財(cái)富中文網(wǎng)）

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譯者：嚴(yán)匡正

Chances are you own something made of gold: a wedding band, a necklace, or a keepsake handed down from your great-great-grandmother. Maybe you’re even wearing it right now. But did you ever stop to think about where it came from?

Scientists have been pondering that question for decades—and now we know the fascinating answer: From the collision of two neutron stars 200 million years ago.

The collision sent a ripple through space that was observed early Sunday morning by the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO), the scientific collective whose founders won the Nobel Prize in Physics earlier this month. The group announced that event has revealed the origin of some of the heaviest elements on the periodic table. Included in that list: gold, platinum, and iodine—which is essential for human life.

But the truly exciting thing about the discovery, explains Duncan Brown, a LIGO member and a Syracuse University physicist at the heart of this discovery, is that it provides clues about the origin of the universe and the structure of matter. “This is a major advancement in human knowledge,” he tells Fortune.

Brown believes the neutron star collision may also help shed light on the prevailing theory of the formation of the universe—colloquially known as the “Big Bang” theory: That all matter was once collected into a single incredibly dense point and that that point “exploded” about 13,600 million years ago, creating the universe as we know it.

One of the key ways in which scientists have been trying to learn more about the Big Bang is by observing other explosions and collisions of celestial objects. Until now, LIGO had observed only four such collisions (which cause gravitational “ripples” in space making them ripe for detection); all of them have involved black holes.

But the problem with black holes is that, well, they’re black—and don’t really leave much to observe, Brown explains. The collision that scientists observed Sunday morning, however, “created a pretty spectacular display,” giving scientists insight into the formation of those heavy elements (gold and platinum included) and plenty of fodder to keep working towards the ultimate goal: Figuring out how we all got here.