Earth's Gold May Come From Collisions of Dead Stars
All of the gold on Earth might have come from cosmic crashes between superdense dead stars, new research suggests.
The origin of the universe's gold is mysterious, since it's not formed within stars like lighter elements such as carbon and iron. But the mystery may now be solved, as a new study posits that the collision of two neutron stars — the tiny, incredibly dense cores of exploded stars — could catalyze the creation of the valuable metal.
"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, of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics (CfA), said in a statement. "To paraphrase Carl Sagan, we are all star stuff, and our jewelry is colliding-star stuff."