Where did Earth get its gold from? The answer was hiding in an alien signal

India Today

30-04-2025

Gold prices in India are skyrocketing and the metal continues to shine amid all the external pressure, but have you ever wondered where this gold came from?Astronomers have long believed that it all originated in the fringes of the universe and was transported to Earth via meteor bombardments. After the Earth's core formed, heavy metals like gold sank to the centre. The gold found in Earth's crust today was likely delivered later by meteorites rich in metals.advertisementA previously unknown birthplace of some of the universe's rarest elements, including gold, has been discovered. It all came from a giant flare unleashed by a supermagnetised star.
In an ejection that would have caused its rotation to slow, a magnetar is depicted losing material into space in this artist's concept. (Photo: NASA/JPL-Caltech)
Astronomers have calculated that such flares could be responsible for forging up to 10 per cent of our galaxy's gold, platinum and other heavy elements.Most of the elements we know and love today weren't always around. Hydrogen, helium and a dash of lithium were formed in the Big Bang, but almost everything else has been manufactured by stars in their lives, or during their violent deaths.advertisement'It's pretty incredible to think that some of the heavy elements all around us, like the precious metals in our phones and computers, are produced in these crazy extreme environments,' says Anirudh Patel, lead author of the new study.The new discovery was thanks to a rare signal that was picked up by a telescope on Earth 20 years ago in 2004. This signal came from a magnetar — a type of star wrapped in magnetic fields trillions of times as strong as the Earth's — that had unleashed the giant flare.
A single flare from a supermagnetized star called a magnetar can produce the mass equivalent of 27 moons' worth of the universe's heaviest atoms such as gold. (Photo: Gettty)
The powerful blast of radiation only lasted a few seconds, but it released more energy than our sun does in 1 million years.The unexplained smaller signal marked the rare birth of heavy elements such as gold and platinum. In addition to confirming another source of these elements, the astronomers estimated that the 2004 flare alone produced the equivalent of a third of the Earth's mass in heavy metals.advertisementThe details have been published in a paper in The Astrophysical Journal Letters.'This is really just the second time we've ever directly seen proof of where these elements form. It's a substantial leap in our understanding of heavy elements production,' study co-author Brian Metzger said.