Do you wear a gold ring or necklace? If so, the chances are that you are walking around with a little bit of the universe around your finger or neck. Scientists has suggested all the gold on Earth comes from ancient collisions of dead stars – and believe they have found fresh evidence to support the theory. The theory goes that the collision of two neutron stars – the tiny, dense cores of exploded stars – could be behind the creation of gold long before the solar system was born around 4.5 billion years ago. Telescopes have detected such an explosion, which threw out a short gamma-ray burst, and resulted in a strange glow that lasted for days. Researchers said that infrared light in the glow could be evidence that gold was thrown out from such collisions – and suggest gold was produced in a similar way in the Milky Way. The research does not look at how gold arrived on Earth, although it is thought a meteor shower could have delivered it and other precious metals to the planet. Lead researcher Edo Berger, of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, was quoted as saying that huge amounts of gold may have been created. "We estimate that the amount of gold produced and ejected during the merger of the two neutron stars may be as large as 10 moon masses — quite a lot of bling." according to the expert. He also quoted as saying people “walk around with a little tiny piece of the universe”.
Posted on: Thu, 18 Jul 2013 18:36:47 +0000
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