Another Source of Gold

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New research points to magnetar or highly magnetized neutron stars as the possible origins of gold. It is likely that lighter elements such as hydrogen, helium, and a small amount of lithium existed after the big bang created the universe. When the stars exploded it caused heavy elements like iron to become a part of newborn stars and planets. 

Neutron stars are the remains of the cores from exploded stars. They are extremely dense as one teaspoon of the star’s material would weigh one billion tons on Earth. Magnetars are a bright type of neutron star and they have a very powerful magnetic field. Strong magnetic fields can affect star formation and even disrupt the formation of other planets. 

Many astronomers are trying to figure out how magnetars form, but they theorize that the first magentars appeared just after the first strains about 200 million years of the beginning of the universe. Magentars have the potential to unleash high amounts of radiation that come from “starquakes”. Starquakes are similar to how earthquakes form. Earthquakes occur because Earth’s molten core causes motion in the planet's crust, over time stress builds up resulting in the ground shaking.  

It’s likely that the flares heat and eject the crust material at high speeds, according to recent research by several coauthors of the new study, including Patel’s adviser Brian Metzger, a professor of physics at Columbia University and senior research scientist at the Flatiron Institute in New York City.“They hypothesized that the physical conditions of this explosive mass ejection were promising for the production of heavy elements,” Patel said. 

Producing gold is a precise process because it requires a number of specific conditions to be met. The magnetars could add too much of the wrong ingredients which would cause other metals like zirconium or silver, instead of gold. “Therefore, I wouldn’t go so far as to say that a new source of gold has been discovered,” Troja said. “Rather, what’s been proposed is an alternative pathway for its production.”