A groundbreaking new study has shed light on one of the universe’s most captivating mysteries: the origin of gold and other heavy metals essential to our daily lives.
According to research reported by The Washington Post, elements heavier than iron — including uranium and gold — may have formed in dramatic explosions from a rare type of star known as a magnetar. These magnetars, which existed long before the birth of our solar system, could have been one of the earliest sources of precious metals on Earth, as detailed in a study published in the Astrophysical Journal.
This discovery is crucial, as life on Earth would not have flourished without heavy metals, even with water and oxygen in place. Everything from our smartphones to Earth’s core — and even the functioning of the human body — depends on these elements.
“If you think about the fundamental components everything is made of — neutrons, protons, and electrons — the real question becomes: how does nature forge these simple particles into the complex matter that surrounds us?” explained Anirudh Patel, lead author of the study and a doctoral researcher at Columbia University.
The Recipe for Heavy Metals
Over the years, scientists have identified two key conditions for the creation of heavy metals:
A dense environment filled with abundant neutrons and protons.
A much higher number of neutrons than protons — otherwise, the protons would repel each other, preventing stable element formation.
Neutron Stars: The Usual Suspects
The prime candidate for such conditions has long been neutron stars, the densest known objects in the universe. These stars are formed when a massive star explodes in a supernova and collapses into an incredibly compact core — a neutron star.
“If you disturb a neutron star, you’re releasing the densest matter in the universe — essentially pure neutrons,” said Eric Burns, co-author and astrophysicist at Louisiana State University.
In 2017, scientists observed two neutron stars merging, confirming for the first time that such collisions produce vast quantities of heavy elements. The gold formed in that single event was several times more massive than Earth.
“That was the first observational proof that merging neutron stars can create heavy elements,” said Patel. But as he pointed out, neutron star mergers alone couldn’t account for all the metals in the universe.
A Missing Piece: Magnetar Explosions
For one thing, neutron star mergers happen too late in cosmic history to explain why even the earliest stars contained heavy elements. For another, they’re rare — occurring roughly once every 100,000 years — and couldn’t be the universe’s only source of such materials.
That’s where magnetars come in — a subtype of neutron stars with the most extreme magnetic fields in the cosmos. The research team suspected that a magnetar explosion, or "giant flare," might unleash enough energy to forge huge quantities of heavy elements.
“You take the densest object in the universe, the strongest magnetic fields, and you break it apart,” said Burns. “The energy release is absolutely colossal.”
Rare but Powerful Events
Magnetars are rare, but they explode frequently enough and are believed to have existed in the early galaxy. Still, it wasn’t until recently that scientists were able to test whether one of their flares could indeed create heavy metals.
Only three such “giant flares” have been recorded in the past 60 years, but one extraordinary event in 2004 changed everything. A magnetar erupted with such force that it disturbed Earth’s ionosphere — despite being located 30,000 light-years away.
A Flash That Matched the Model
“That a flare from across the galaxy could impact Earth so strongly is incredible,” said Brian Metzger, co-author and astrophysicist at Columbia University. “It may have been the brightest electromagnetic event we’ve ever observed outside our solar system.”
The flare not only emitted a blinding burst of light, but also ejected material from the neutron star’s surface. As this material expanded and cooled, the protons and neutrons recombined into heavier elements — such as gold, platinum, and uranium.
These elements were initially radioactive and unstable, but they later decayed into their stable forms, releasing energy in the form of gamma rays.
Patel’s team modeled which elements would likely be formed and how much gamma-ray energy would be released as they decayed. When they compared their predictions with actual gamma-ray data from the flare, the match was surprisingly accurate.
The flare produced more heavy elements than the mass of Mars — a staggering cosmic output.
A New Chapter in Cosmic Chemistry
“This is a very exciting development,” said Hsinyu Chen, an astrophysicist at the University of Texas at Austin who was not involved in the study. Scientists had long suspected multiple mechanisms for the creation of heavy elements, she added, “but they couldn’t definitively prove it until now.”
Anna Frebel, a professor of physics and head of astrophysics at MIT, echoed this view, noting that the findings help explain how heavy metals could have formed in the early universe — in ways neutron star mergers alone couldn’t.
On a more personal note, Frebel said, “We can now say with some confidence that our gold and platinum jewelry probably came from stellar explosions and neutron star mergers that happened around a billion years before the Sun was born.”
