homehome Home chatchat Notifications


Gold doesn't fall out of the sky - but it's created in the heavens

Research based on recent observations of a nearby gamma-ray burst, GRB 130603B, help explain how gold, silver and other heavy metal atoms are created.

Alexandru Micu
June 18, 2015 @ 10:22 am

share Share

For thousands of years gold has been the embodiment of wealth. Its chemical stability and scarcity make it ideal for coinage. In the USA, the link between gold and currency has only been weakened in 1933 when the gold standard fell out of use, and was fully separated from the dollar in 1971. While currently no country uses the gold standard any longer, money deriving its value from government regulation or law  (called fiat currency), for much of human history gold has been the basis of most economic structures: everything had a corresponding value relative to the metal.

It is found in economy as a carrier of value, in art as a symbol of grandeur and in social interactions as a sign of high status. Religions across the globe reinforce this key place for gold, using it either literally – in contexts linked with divinity – or metaphorically, as mark of purity. But for the central role it played in human society, we know surprisingly little about how gold came into being. Research by the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics (CfA) may help us better understand the processes which create this soft, shiny and precious metal.

Gold rules the world. Powerful dark magic helps too.
Image credit to vincentxyooj, via: deviantart.com

While we’ve previously wrote on the importance and creation of gold here, research based on recent observations of a nearby gamma-ray burst, GRB 130603B, helps to explain how gold and silver atoms are created.

These bursts are flashes of high-energy light (gamma rays), associated with explosions. Researchers believe that the immense energy released in the GRB 130603B event resulted from the collision of two neutron stars–deceased cores of stars that have exhausted their fuel and exploded. Gamma-ray bursts come in two varieties – long and short – depending on how long the flash of gamma rays lasts. GRB 130603B, detected by NASA’s Swift satellite on June 3rd, lasted for less than two-tenths of a second, followed by a glow dominated by infrared light that radiated from the area for several days after the explosion, exhibiting unusual behavior.

Its brightness and behavior didn’t match a typical ‘afterglow,’ which is created when a high-speed jet of particles slams into the surrounding environment. Instead, the glow behaved like it came from exotic radioactive elements. The neutron-rich material ejected by colliding neutron stars can generate such elements, which then undergo radioactive decay, emitting a glow that’s dominated by infrared light – exactly what the team observed.

“We’ve been looking for a ‘smoking gun’ to link a short gamma-ray burst with a neutron star collision. The radioactive glow from GRB 130603B may be that smoking gun,” explains Wen-fai Fong, a graduate student at the CfA and a co-author of the paper.

In this high-energy event, two neutron stars collide. Scientists believe the glowing aftermath is the origin of elements such as gold. Image via: popsci.com

In this high-energy event, two neutron stars collide. Scientists believe the glowing aftermath is the origin of elements such as gold.
Image via: popsci.com

The team believes that significant quantities of gold and other heavy elements were created and released in that area during the collision.

“We estimate that the amount of gold produced and ejected during the merger of the two neutron stars may be as large as 10 moon masses–quite a lot of bling!” lead author Edo Berger said in a statement.

“To paraphrase Carl Sagan, we are all star stuff, and our jewelry is colliding-star stuff,” says Berger.

As gamma-ray burst events are quite frequent, Berger and his colleagues hypothesize that all the gold in our universe could have been created this way.

The team’s results have been submitted for publication in The Astrophysical Journal Letters and are available online. Berger’s co-authors are Wen-fai Fong and Ryan Chornock, both of the CfA.

share Share

Your gut has a secret weapon against 'forever chemicals': microbes

Our bodies have some surprising allies sometimes.

High IQ People Are Strikingly Better at Forecasting the Future

New study shows intelligence shapes our ability to forecast life events accurately.

Cheese Before Bed Might Actually Be Giving You Nightmares

Eating dairy or sweets late at night may fuel disturbing dreams, new study finds.

Your Personal Air Defense System Is Here and It’s Built to Vaporize Up to 30 Mosquitoes per Second with Lasers

LiDAR-guided Photon Matrix claims to fell 30 mosquitoes a second, but questions remain.

Scientists Ranked the Most Hydrating Drinks and Water Didn't Win

Milk is more hydrating than water. Here's why.

Methane Leaks from Fossil Fuels Hit Record Highs. And We're Still Looking the Other Way

Powerful leaks, patchy action, and untapped fixes keep methane near record highs in 2024.

Astronomers Found a Star That Exploded Twice Before Dying

A rare double explosion in space may rewrite supernova science.

This Enzyme-Infused Concrete Could Turn Buildings into CO2 Sponges

A new study offers a greener path for concrete, the world’s dirtiest building material.

Buried in a Pot, Preserved by Time: Ancient Egyptian Skeleton Yields First Full Genome

DNA from a 4,500-year-old skeleton reveals ancestry links between North Africa and the Fertile Crescent.

AI Helped Decode a 3,000-Year-Old Babylonian Hymn That Describes a City More Welcoming Than You’d Expect

Rediscovered text reveals daily life and ideals of ancient Babylon.