Bits of the stars are all around us, and in us, too. about half of the abundance of elements heavier than iron originates in some of the most violent explosions in the cosmos. The kilonova spectrum carries signatures of heavy elements, confirming that neutron star mergers are at least one site where r-process elements are produced. The gravitational waves seen by LIGO-Virgo originated in the crash of a pair of neutron stars about 130 million light-years from Earth. It could have been another neutron star, a neutron star on its way to becoming a black hole, or a black hole. [Extracted from the article]