Strange Stars Hold The Clue To The Oldest Gold In The Universe
Soon after the Big Bang, powerful flares that came from magnetars, which are neutron stars with a strong magnetic field, may have started forging gold much earlier than previously thought. Scientists think this is how gold came about in the early universe.
For a long time, experts have puzzled over the origins of the universe’s large amounts of gold. They knew that mergers of collapsed stars and black holes release heavy metals, but in 2017, astronomers observed the merger of two neutron stars for the first time.
The collision occurred 130 million light-years away and emitted a flash of light that contained signatures of heavy metals, such as platinum and vast amounts of gold.
The 2017 event accounted for some of the universe’s gold, but it could not explain how gold formed in the early days of the universe because neutron star mergers did not happen back then. Now, scientists think they know how gold and other heavy metals were first created.
Since the early days of the universe, magnetars have existed. It is estimated that these structures have contributed up to 10 percent of all elements heavier than iron in the Milky Way.
The researchers used 20-year-old data from NASA and European Space Agency telescopes to identify the source of gold and heavy metals.
They settled on magnetars based on the results of a 2024 study, which found that magnetar giant flares can eject heavy metals from the crust of neutron stars into space. The last magnetar giant flare to be observed from Earth was in 2004.
At the time, scientists had noticed a small gamma ray signal from the flare, but no one had any idea what it could be.
Now, they know the signal is what takes place when a magnetar creates and discharges heavy metals in a giant flare.
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Magnetar giant flares produce an abundance of high-energy radiation. This could be a key part of how gold and elements heavier than iron are formed.
The high density of neutrons in a giant flare can turn light atomic nuclei into heavier ones, causing multiple nuclear decay reactions simultaneously in a single atom.
Atoms carry protons and neutrons. They can absorb an extra neutron in certain conditions, which increases the mass of an atom, destabilizing it and leading to a reaction that transforms the neutron into a proton. With the extra proton, the atom’s identity on the periodic table is changed.
Magnetic giant flares accelerate this process because the high density of neutrons can trigger atoms to absorb several of them at once, resulting in the rapid formation of heavy metals like gold.
Moving forward, the researchers will investigate older magnetar giant flare data. The new study was published in The Astrophysical Journal Letters.
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