Gold Earth, forging dead star collision - CNN

Madrid. (EP). – Astronomers at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center have conducted a study that determined that all gold the Earth has carved from ancient collisions dead stars .

This finding, published in Astrophysical Journal Letters , comes after explosion observing neutron stars have confirmed the theory that shuffled some years.

As explained by experts, astronomers have known for a long time that fusion reactions in the cores of stars create lighter elements like carbon and oxygen, but such reactions can produce heavier elements like gold.

formed in stellar explosions such as supernovae. “But that does not entirely explain the amount of precious metal that exists in the solar system,” said lead author Edo Berger.

Years later, a European team, using supercomputers, suggested that gold, platinum and other heavy metals can form when two neutron stars collide and merge.

Neutron stars are essentially stellar relics: collapsed cores of massive stars. Now, several telescopes have detected such an explosion, and the observation of the phenomenon has strengthened the idea that gold was created in such collisions unusual and violent long before the birth of the Solar System, approximately 4,500 million years. “People walk around with a tiny piece of the universe,” stated Berger on the precious metal.

outbreak that led to the discovery happened in a distant galaxy, 3,900 light years away. Each light year is about 9.5 trillion miles. The outbreak lasted only a split second. Using ground-based telescopes and the Hubble Space Telescope, the Berger team noticed a unique glow that lasted days.

Researchers have explained that the infrared radiation in the glow was evidence that cosmic crash threw heavy elements. This is the same process that, at the time, occurred in the Milky Way.

However, scientists have pointed out that “there are still clear data” as to why the Earth is so rich in gold. Previous work suggests a meteor shower may have brought this and other precious metals on the planet. If the interpretation of the new study is correct would be “a truly exciting news”, as highlighted by the American scientist, who has suggested that are necessary “new observations” to completely finish this work.