The origin of severe causes such as gold is one of the greatest mysteries of astrophysics. Research currently provides clues about the origins of precious metals’ universes.
Scientists have discovered that an explosion of a highly magnetized neutron star called magnetores could create gold in space.
Here is the study details:
What are the latest discoveries regarding the origins of gold?
Analysis of archival data from the space mission shows that a large amount of heavy metals, including gold, come from giant flares from magnetores, according to a study published in the Astrophysical Journal Letters on April 29th.
Anildo Patel, a doctoral student at the Department of Physics at Columbia University in New York, led a study that explored how heavy elements such as iron and gold were created and distributed throughout the universe using 20-year-old archival telescope data from NASA and the European Space Agency telescopes.
“This is a rather basic question from the perspective of the origins of complex issues in the universe,” Patel was quoted as saying in an article on the NASA website. “It’s a fun puzzle that’s not really solved.”
The authors estimated that the giant flares of magnetores could contribute up to 10% of the overall abundance of within-galactic elements heavier than iron.
The study co-authors are at Columbia University, Charles University in the Czech Republic, Louisiana State University, Flatiron Institute in New York, and Ohio State University.
What is a magnetor? And how can you form gold?
Magnetors are a type of highly magnetized neutron stars. In other words, the magnetic field is very strong. When a giant star explodes, it remains behind a very dense, collapsed core, which is called a neutron star.
Astronomers theorize that the first magnets were formed after the first stars about 13.6 billion years ago, according to Eric Burns, a research co-author who is a professor and astrophysicist at Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge. The Big Bang created the universe 13.8 billion years ago.
In rare cases, magnetors can emit high-energy radiation by receiving a “star cake.” Like an earthquake, Starquakes can destroy the crust of magnetars. Sometimes, the Magnetar Starcooke brings a huge flare of Magnetaru. This is a rare explosive event that releases Gamma Ray.
Researchers have discovered that magnetors release material during the giant flare. But they still have no physical explanation for this.
Researchers speculated whether magnetor giant flares formed gold through a rapid process of neutrons forging lighter nuclei into heavier ones. The identity of an element is defined by the number of protons it has. However, if an atom acquires extra neutrons, it can undergo nuclear decay and converts neutrons into protons.
The number of altered protons can change the identity of the element. Neutron stars have a very high density of neutrons. When a neutron star is destroyed, the singular atoms can quickly capture many neutrons and undergo multiple attenuations. This leads to the formation of very heavy elements, such as uranium.
Prior to this study, gold creation was due only to neutron star collisions, or kilonova. When astronomers observed collisions of neutron stars through telescopes in 2017, they discovered that collisions can produce heavy elements such as gold, platinum and lead. However, these collisions are believed to have occurred relatively late in the history of the universe over the past hundreds of millions of years.
However, previously unreadable archive stretch data showed that the magnetor’s giant flares formed much earlier. Therefore, this study shows that the initial gold may have been made from the giant flares of magnetores.
What’s next?
NASA has an upcoming mission to follow up on these results. The Compton Spectrometer and Imager (COSI) are gamma-ray telescopes scheduled to be released in 2027.
COSI studies energy phenomena in the Milky Way and beyond, such as Magnetor Giant Flare. According to the NASA website, COSI has been able to identify individual elements created with giant flares and help them to better understand the origins of the elements.
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