Astronomers told where and how gold and platinum are formed in the universe

Most elements lighter than iron are “forged” in the cores of stars as a result of thermonuclear fusion. But before

 recently scientists have not hadideas about how and where elements heavier than iron came from. After all, their formation requires more complex conditions; high temperature and pressure are not enough.

When stars undergo nuclear fusion,they require energy to fuse protons to form heavier elements. Stars efficiently produce lighter elements, from hydrogen to iron. However, the synthesis of more than 26 protons in iron becomes energetically inefficient.

New study by scientists fromThe Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the University of New Hampshire showed that it is the merging of neutron holes that is responsible for the appearance of gold and platinum. It turned out that over the past 2.5 billion years, more heavy metals have appeared in the merger of neutron stars than in their collisions with black holes.

This is the first study in whichtwo types of fusion are compared in terms of heavy metal yield. The authors of the work have already called neutron stars a cosmic “gold mine” of heavy elements.

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