Where does gold really come from? NASA data reveals the shocking truth |

For years, the origin of the universe’s most large components—reminiscent of gold, platinum, and uranium—was a puzzle that remained unanswered. Although the universe’s lighter components are produced in stars, the supply of the earliest heavy ones was in query. However, now, scientists inspecting nearly 20-year-old area data recommend magnetars—extraordinarily magnetic neutron stars—would possibly fill in the gaps. The little-known stellar particles would have manufactured and unfold out heavy components utilizing colossal flares early in the universe’s evolution. This concept, supported by gamma-ray alerts from previous flares, affords a brand new perspective on how the constructing blocks of contemporary know-how could have fashioned in the depths of area.

Key position of magnetars in the formation of gold and different heavy components

In a brand new research by Anirudh Patel, a Ph.D. scholar at Columbia University, scientists theorise that magnetars—a uncommon and very magnetic type of neutron star—might have performed a key position in the formation and dispersal of heavy components throughout the universe. The research, revealed in The Astrophysical Journal Letters, holds that bursts from these uncommon stars might have contributed way more considerably than initially believed to component formation above iron.

Source: NASA

According to NASA, in the universe’s origins, solely hydrogen, helium, and small portions of lithium had been current. Gold, platinum, and uranium, all the pieces heavier than these, must have been created afterward, normally inside stars. Still, the precise processes that generated the very earliest of those heavy components had been an enigma. “It’s a recreational puzzle that hasn’t really been solved,” Patel mentioned. His researchers seemed again to virtually two-decade-old data from ESA and NASA telescopes, discovering that big flares from magnetars might be answerable for as a lot as 10% of the heavy components in our galaxy. Because magnetars fashioned early in the lifetime of the universe, they might have been amongst the first cosmic goldsmiths for gold and different valuable components.

Cosmic cracks that spark elemental creation

Eric Burns, a co-author from Louisiana State University, likened the breakthrough to fixing a century-old enigma utilizing long-forgotten data. Magnetars are extraordinarily dense remnants of supernova explosions. Just a teaspoon of their matter would weigh billions of tonnes on Earth. But what units them aside is their immense magnetic area—trillions of occasions stronger than Earth’s. Sometimes, their extreme inside stresses result in “starquakes,” shattering their crusts and spewing out outbreaks of high-energy radiation in the type of magnetar flares. Such outbursts are so energetic they affect Earth’s ambiance, regardless that they happen 1000’s of light-years from Earth.

Stellar firestorms might have cast the first gold

Patel and his colleagues ventured that these outbursts of violence from the stars might construct heavy components throughout an r-process, or strategy of speedy neutron seize. Such a course of outcomes when atomic nuclei seize neutrons at a swift charge, gaining mass and remodeling into new atoms by way of radioactive disintegration.
According to the NASA stories, in 2017, the universe noticed heavy components being created in the merger of two neutron stars, giving direct proof of the r-process. Yet, such cosmic mergers occur too hardly ever and too late to account for the early existence of components reminiscent of gold. Patel’s crew investigated if magnetar flares, being extra frequent and taking place earlier, might be the lacking hyperlink. Whereas the crew first thought of seen or ultraviolet gentle for offering hints, Burns really helpful contemplating gamma rays due to their penetrating skills and distinctive signatures. That change in course prompted them to re-examine data from a powerful magnetar flare noticed in 2004 by ESA’s retired INTEGRAL satellite tv for pc.
To their shock, the gamma-ray sign in the data precisely replicated what their theoretical fashions had proven. “I wasn’t thinking about anything else for the next week,” Patel recalled of the epiphany second. Independent affirmation got here later with archival observations from NASA’s RHESSI and Wind satellites, each of which had noticed the identical flare independently and strengthened the crew’s conclusion.

A brand new period in Astrophysics: Magnetar flares and component creation

This discovering has opened a brand new frontier in astrophysics. NASA’s subsequent COSI mission, launching in 2027, will likely be a wide-field gamma-ray telescope that can examine cosmic explosions. It would possibly instantly observe the creation of sure components throughout magnetar flares, presumably validating Patel’s speculation.
Meanwhile, researchers are sifting by means of different historical telescope data, trying to find related gamma-ray signatures left behind by earlier flares. The thought {that a} phenomenon as brutal as a magnetar flare was behind the gold in marriage ceremony bands or the platinum in cellphones is humbling and awe-provoking.
“It’s kind of nice to consider that some of the material in my phone or laptop was created through this intense explosion,” Patel mused, reliving the marvel of following commonplace supplies again to celestial catastrophes billions of years in the past.
Also Read | NASA’s oldest astronaut Don Pettit feels a long time youthful in area, marks his seventieth birthday with a rejuvenated return