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In a new paper revealed in The Astrophysical Journal Letters, a staff of researchers led by Anirudh Patel of Columbia University has reported that the universe might have one other option to produce the treasured aspect gold — which scientists have to this point believed has been produced solely in the cataclysmic collisions of ultra-dense worlds referred to as neutron stars.
Knowing the place completely different parts in the universe come from helps scientists perceive how the universe’s chemical make-up has modified via time. The early universe solely had hydrogen, helium, and hint quantities of lithium. All different parts have 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 can even 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 first direct observational proof of a course of referred to as r-process nucleosynthesis in a strong flare emitted by a physique referred to 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 customary 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 in the delayed emission and the way it modified in time have been discovered to be in line with the decay signatures of radioactive isotopes wealthy in neutrons produced in the fast 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 may clarify the delayed emission.
This means some magnetar flares can eject neutron-rich matter into house, the place it goes via 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 steered that the universe might have had gold atoms sooner since the cosmos may have had magnetars earlier than colliding neutron stars.
The authors additionally thought-about some various explanations — together with noise in the measuring devices and devices misreading the flare’s afterglow — and dominated them out by comparisons with different information and detailed simulations.
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Published – May 07, 2025 09:43 am IST
