Scientists say they’ve found another source of gold in the cosmos. What creates gold? Astronomers uncover a new clue

Astronomers have been trying to determine the cosmic origins of the heaviest elements, like gold, for decades. Now, new research based on a signal uncovered in archival space mission data may point to a potential clue: magnetars, or highly magnetized neutron stars.

Quakes on stars
Neutron stars are the remnants of the cores from exploded stars, and they are so dense that 1 teaspoon of the star’s material would weigh 1 billion tons on Earth.

Magnetars are an extremely bright type of neutron star with an incredibly powerful magnetic field.

Astronomers are still trying to work out exactly how magnetars form, but they theorize that the first magnetars likely appeared just after the first stars within about 200 million years of the beginning of the universe, or about 13.6 billion years ago, Burns said.

Tracing a stellar signal
The research team was curious to see whether there might be a connection between the radiation from magnetar flares and the formation of heavy elements. The scientists searched for evidence in wavelengths of visible and ultraviolet light. But Burns wondered whether the flare might create a traceable gamma ray as well.

“The production of gold from this magnetar is a possible explanation for its gamma-ray glow, one among many others as the paper honestly discusses at its end,” Troja said.

Troja added that magnetars are “very messy objects.” Given that producing gold can be a tricky process that requires specific conditions, it’s possible that magnetars could add too much of the wrong ingredients, such as an excess of electrons, to the mix, resulting in light metals like zirconium or silver, rather than gold or uranium.

The researchers believe that magnetar giant flares could be responsible for up to 10% of elements heavier than iron in the Milky Way galaxy, but a future mission could provide a more precise estimate, Patel said.

NASA’s Compton Spectrometer and Imager mission, or COSI, expected to launch in 2027, could follow up on the study’s findings. The wide-field gamma-ray telescope is designed to observe giant magnetar flares and identify elements created within them. The telescope could help astronomers search for other potential sources of heavy elements across the universe, Patel said.