Astronomers have entered a new era, combining observations of gravitational waves and light for the first time. They have recorded a cataclysmic collision between two neutron stars in a distant galaxy, which not only set the universe aquiver but also propelled newly created atoms of gold, uranium and other heavy metals into space.

Excited scientists announced the discovery at briefings around the world on Monday. One of them, Professor Stephen Smartt of Queen’s University Belfast, said: “This opens up a new dawn in physics and astronomy. We had only just begun to detect gravitational waves and now we have used telescopes to detect light from the object that caused them: a merger of two neutron stars, which had been predicted but never seen before.”

Neutron stars are the densest form of matter known — the collapsed cores of massive stars. Each has a mass greater than the Sun in a region of space just 10km across. Putting it another way, a teaspoon of neutron star would weigh a billion tonnes.