In a brand new paper revealed in The Astrophysical Journal Letters, a staff of researchers led by Anirudh Patel of Columbia University has reported that the universe could have one other solution to produce the valuable aspect gold — which scientists have up to now believed has been produced solely within the cataclysmic collisions of ultra-dense worlds known as neutron stars.
Knowing the place totally different parts within the universe come from helps scientists perceive how the universe’s chemical make-up has modified by time. The early universe solely had hydrogen, helium, and hint quantities of lithium. All different parts had been created later in stars, cosmic explosions, and laboratory experiments. Mapping the sources tells us how galaxies, stars, and planets took form over time. Understanding the sources also can reveal how typically a component was produced and the way the presence of a component influenced the source’s personal evolution.
The staff reported the primary direct observational proof of a course of known as r-process nucleosynthesis in a strong flare emitted by a physique known as a magnetar in 2004. Almost a day after the flare, the magnetar emitted robust gamma rays, which NASA’s Compton Gamma Ray Observatory recorded. Per the staff, the delayed emission was inconsistent with commonplace flare afterglows and contained proof of radioactive decay from r-process nuclei.
Magnetars are neutron stars with extraordinarily robust magnetic fields. Sometimes they launch massive bursts of vitality in flares.
The vitality ranges within the delayed emission and the way it modified in time had been discovered to be in step with the decay signatures of radioactive isotopes wealthy in neutrons produced within the speedy neutron-capture course of, or r-process. The staff used fashions to conclude that 1.9 septillion kg of r-process materials ejected at near the velocity of gentle might clarify the delayed emission.
This means some magnetar flares can eject neutron-rich matter into house, the place it goes by r-process nucleosynthesis to create heavy parts like gold. So far, physicists have believed that gold has predominantly been produced in mergers of neutron stars, which scientists examine utilizing house telescopes and gravitational wave detectors. Patel et al. additionally instructed that the universe could have had gold atoms sooner for the reason that cosmos might have had magnetars earlier than colliding neutron stars.
The authors additionally thought-about some different explanations — together with noise within the measuring devices and devices misreading the flare’s afterglow — and dominated them out by comparisons with different information and detailed simulations.
Published – May 10, 2025 06:00 am IST
