Latest news with #AnirudhPatel
Yahoo
a day ago
- Science
- Yahoo
The Ancient Star That Could Explain Where Gold Comes From
Tucked away in a stellar graveyard known as the Gaia Sausage, scientists have discovered a cosmic oddity with a potentially huge impact: a rare actinide-boost star called LAMOST J0804+5740. While the name may not be catchy, what's inside it could help explain one of the biggest lingering questions in modern astrophysics—how the universe formed its heaviest elements, including gold, uranium, and thorium. This star's unique chemical signature points to a history forged in some of the most violent conditions the cosmos has ever seen. According to researchers revealed that LAMOST J0804+5740 contains unusually high amounts of radioactive actinides, which are typically only produced in extreme events like neutron star collisions or exotic supernovae. That process, called the r-process (short for rapid neutron capture), is responsible for creating roughly half the elements heavier than iron. But there's a mystery: the few known cosmic events capable of fueling it are far too rare to explain the sheer volume of heavy elements found across the universe. That's where this weird star comes in. What makes J0804+5740 particularly interesting is its blend of high actinide levels and high metallicity, an unusual combo that defies expectations. Most actinide-rich stars are metal-poor and ancient. This one? It's old, but chemically rich, suggesting it may have originated in a now-merged dwarf galaxy outside the Milky Way. The leading theory? A violent, magneto-rotationally driven supernova—one of the most intense known cosmic explosions—could be the source. If confirmed, that would mark a major breakthrough in our understanding of the r-process and the birth of the elements that make up planets, people, and, yes, precious metals. "This means we don't yet have the complete picture," said Columbia University researcher Anirudh Patel. "Future observations […] will reveal more about the nature of r-process sites in the universe," Patel said. "Along with new and advanced theoretical models, this will be essential to resolving the r-process mystery and completing our understanding of the origin of the elements."The Ancient Star That Could Explain Where Gold Comes From first appeared on Men's Journal on Jun 5, 2025
Yahoo
2 days ago
- Science
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Where does the universe's gold come from? Giant flares from extreme magnetic stars offer a clue
When you buy through links on our articles, Future and its syndication partners may earn a commission. Scientists have finally gathered direct proof of how the universe forges its heaviest elements, a process that has remained a mystery for over half a century. A team from the Flatiron Institute in New York City calculated that giant flares emitted by magnetars — highly magnetic types of collapsed stars known as neutron stars — could be the long-sought cosmic forge that creates the universe's heavy elements. Just one of these giant flares could produce a planet's worth of gold, platinum, and uranium. "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," Anirudh Patel, a doctoral candidate at Columbia University and lead author on a study of these elements, said in a statement. "Magnetar giant flares could be the solution to a problem we've had where there are more heavy elements seen in young galaxies than could be created from neutron star collisions alone." Lighter elements such as hydrogen, helium, and lithium were forged in the Big Bang, while heavier ones were formed through nuclear fusion in stellar cores during stars' lives — or in the aftermath of their explosive deaths. But just how neutron-rich elements that are heavier than iron are made has remained an open question. These elements are thought to form through a series of nuclear reactions known as the rapid neutron capture process, or r-process, which was long theorized to occur only under extreme conditions such as those in supernovas or neutron star mergers. In 2017, astronomers confirmed the r-process for the first time during the observed merger of two neutron stars. However, such collisions are so rare that they cannot fully account for the abundance of heavy elements in the universe and neutron star mergers happen too late in the universe's history to explain the earliest gold and other heavy elements. But the extreme neutron star flares that can forge these elements are much older. "The interesting thing about these giant flares is that they can occur really early in galactic history," Patel added. To study these processes, the NYC scientists turned to magnetars, whose magnetic fields are trillions of times stronger than Earth's. These stars occasionally produce "flares" — bursts of energy caused by the sudden release of magnetic energy, typically triggered by the rearrangement or decay of their magnetic fields. The team calculated that a magnetar's giant flare could create the right conditions for r-process elements to form, producing highly unstable radioactive nuclei that decay into stable heavy elements such as gold. Excitingly, the NYC team was able to link their calculations to a mysterious observation made in 2004 of a bright flash of light from the magnetar SGR 1806–20. Initially, the event didn't seem unusual — until researchers realized the flare's total energy was roughly a thousand times greater than that of typical bursts. "The event had kind of been forgotten over the years," said Brian Metzger, a senior research scientist at the CCA and a professor at Columbia University. "But we very quickly realized that our model was a perfect fit for it." "I wasn't thinking about anything else for the next week or two," Patel said in a NASA statement. "It was the only thing on my mind." By combining observations of SGR 1806–20's 2004 flare with their model, Metzger, Patel, and their colleagues estimated that the event likely produced around 2 million billion billion (you read that right) kilograms of heavy elements — roughly the mass of Mars or 27 moons! While such flares could account for about 10% of all heavy elements in our galaxy, the researchers note that the origins of the remaining 90% remain uncertain. "We can't exclude that there could be third or fourth sites out there that we just haven't seen yet," Metzger said. RELATED STORIES: — What happens inside neutron stars, the universe's densest known objects? — James Webb Space Telescope finds neutron star mergers forge gold in the cosmos: 'It was thrilling' — The most powerful explosions in the universe could reveal where gold comes from Eager to push their discovery further, the team plans to hunt for more magnetar flares using NASA's Compton Spectrometer and Imager mission, slated for launch in 2027 — a mission that could reveal even more secrets about the cosmic origins of gold and other heavy elements. "It's a pretty fundamental question in terms of the origin of complex matter in the universe," Patel said. "It's a fun puzzle that hasn't actually been solved." The team's research was published in The Astrophysical Journal Letters.
Yahoo
2 days ago
- Science
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How an odd star in the 'Gaia Sausage' could help solve one of astronomy's most enduring mysteries
When you buy through links on our articles, Future and its syndication partners may earn a commission. Astronomers have discovered an exceptionally rare star that may help to solve one of astronomy's enduring mysteries: where the universe's heaviest elements came from. The star, named LAMOST J0804+5740, resides in the Gaia Sausage (also called Gaia Enceladus), the ancient remnants of a dwarf galaxy that merged with the Milky Way roughly 8 billion to 11 billion years ago. This type of star, known as an actinide-boost star, has a high abundance of radioactive elements known as actinides. "The actinides are the heaviest group of elements on the periodic table," Anirudh Patel, a doctoral candidate in the Theoretical High Energy Astrophysics group at Columbia University who was not involved in the study, told "They include thorium and uranium, for example, and are produced by the r-process." The r-process, short for "rapid neutron capture process," is a series of nuclear reactions that occur in extreme astronomical environments, like during neutron star mergers or certain types of supernovas, where atomic nuclei rapidly absorb neutrons before they have a chance to decay, becoming heavier elements. "This is how approximately half of the elements in our universe heavier than iron are synthesized," Patel explained. "The r-process requires more extreme astrophysical environments than your typical nuclear fusion reactions that take place in the cores of massive stars. However, a complete understanding of the astrophysical origin of the r-process has remained elusive for decades." Direct observations of the r-process in action are rare. So far, astronomers have identified two likely cosmic sites where it occurs. One is the merger of neutron stars, and more recently, Patel and colleagues reported evidence that it may also occur within extremely magnetized neutron stars called magnetars. Although these discoveries are steps in the right direction, they still fall short of explaining how most of the universe's heavy elements came to be. Known r-process sites alone can't fully account for the observed abundance of heavy elements like uranium, thorium and gold. This is because they are too rare or infrequent to produce the sheer quantity of heavy elements we observe today, suggesting that other, yet-undiscovered sources must be contributing. Observations of J0804+5740, the first actinide-boost star identified in the Gaia Sausage, provide an exciting new piece of the puzzle. "The study reports a comprehensive set of chemical data, identifying a new r-process enriched star," Patel said. "This, along with other data and theoretical models, will play a role in [pinning down] the origin of the r-process elements in the universe." To determine which elements are present in a star and uncover the processes that produced them, astronomers use a technique known as atomic spectroscopy. "The idea is that electrons occupy different energy levels in atoms," Patel said. "The spacing between these energy levels can be different inside atoms of different elements. If an atom is sitting in the atmosphere of a star, it can absorb the light from the star, and its electrons can transition between the internal energy levels. Different elements have different atomic structure[s], so they will absorb different frequencies of light during these transitions." Using specialized instruments, scientists observe less light at specific colors where elements absorb it due to their internal energy levels. This helps them measure how much of those elements are in the star's atmosphere. The study's scientific team was excited that, after conducting an elemental analysis, they found that J0804+5740 represents a rare example of an actinide-boost star at relatively high metallicity — the overall abundance of elements heavier than helium in a star. Actinide-boost stars typically only show an unusually high number of actinides, like thorium and uranium, relative to other heavy elements produced by the r-process, but this boost usually appears in stars that are metal-poor or have low metallicity. This makes J0804+5740 a bit of an oddball. "Like most r-process enhanced stars, the abundance pattern of most heavy neutron-capture elements in J0804+5740 agrees well with the solar r-process, indicating that the main r-process produced these elements in the early universe," the team wrote in a paper published in The Astrophysical Journal Letters. "However, some elements exhibit deviations from [a typical] solar r-process abundance pattern." It follows the expected pattern for very heavy elements, but it also shows an unexpectedly high abundance of lighter r-process elements, like barium, lanthanum and cerium. "[Their abundance] in the star J0804+5740 is a few times larger than in our own solar system," Patel said. "This implies that there exist multiple types of r-process sites — in particular, one that could produce a relatively high abundance of these light r-process elements." To better understand the odd star's origins, the team analyzed the motions of J0804+5740 and similar stars. They found that actinide-boost stars are twice as likely to have come from outside the Milky Way, suggesting they were born in smaller galaxies that were later pulled into ours. This points to an important clue: The actinide-boost phenomenon may be more common in older, smaller galaxies. Theoretical models indicate that one possible source could be a rare and powerful explosion known as a magneto-rotationally driven supernova. These extreme events could create the kind of neutron-rich environments needed to produce actinides, particularly in galaxies like the Gaia Sausage. RELATED STORIES: —The most powerful explosions in the universe could reveal where gold comes from —Nearby asteroid may contain elements 'beyond the periodic table,' new study suggests —Where does the universe's gold come from? Giant flares from extreme magnetic stars offer a clue "The theoretical models are promising, but they are not without their uncertainties," Patel said. "More observational constraints are needed to assess how well these models reproduce what actually happens in nature." Regardless, these elemental deviations in J0804+5740 suggest a more complex nucleosynthetic origin — possibly involving multiple types of r-process events or contributions from other processes beyond the main r-process. "This means we don't yet have the complete picture," Patel said. "Future observations […] will reveal more about the nature of r-process sites in the universe," Patel said. "Along with new and advanced theoretical models, this will be essential to resolving the r-process mystery and completing our understanding of the origin of the elements."
Al Jazeera
05-05-2025
- Science
- Al Jazeera
Have scientists solved the mystery of gold's origin in the universe?
The origins of heavy elements such as gold have been one of the biggest mysteries of astrophysics. A study has now provided a clue about the precious metal's cosmic origins. Scientists have found that explosions in highly magnetised neutron stars, called magnetars, could have created gold in the universe. Here is more about the study: Analysis of archival data from space missions shows that a large amount of heavy metals, including gold, come from giant flares from magnetars, according to a study published in The Astrophysical Journal Letters on April 29. Anirudh Patel, a doctoral student at the Department of Physics at Columbia University in New York, led the study, which used 20-year-old archival telescope data from NASA and European Space Agency telescopes to investigate how heavy elements such as iron and gold were created and distributed throughout the universe. 'It's a pretty fundamental question in terms of the origin of complex matter in the universe,' Patel was quoted as saying in an article on the NASA website. 'It's a fun puzzle that hasn't actually been solved.' The authors estimated that magnetar giant flares could contribute up to 10 percent of the overall abundance of elements in the galaxy that are heavier than iron. Co-authors of the study are affiliated with Columbia University, Charles University in the Czech Republic, Louisiana State University, the Flatiron Institute in New York and Ohio State University. A magnetar is a type of neutron star that is highly magnetised, which means its magnetic field is extremely powerful. When a massive star explodes, it leaves a very dense, collapsed core behind, which is called a neutron star. Astronomers theorise that the first magnetars were formed after the first stars about 13.6 billion years ago, according to study coauthor Eric Burns, assistant professor and astrophysicist at Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge. The Big Bang created the universe 13.8 billion years ago. On rare occasions, magnetars can release high-energy radiation by undergoing a 'starquake'. Like an earthquake, a starquake can fracture the magnetar's crust. Sometimes, magnetar starquakes bring with them a magnetar giant flare, a rare explosive event that releases gamma rays. The researchers found that magnetars release material during giant flares. However, they do not yet have a physical explanation for this. The researchers speculated about whether magnetar giant flares formed gold through the rapid process of neutrons forging lighter atomic nuclei into heavier ones. An element's identity is defined by the number of protons it has. However, if an atom acquires an extra neutron, it can undergo nuclear decay, which can turn a neutron into a proton. A changed number of protons can change the element's identity. Neutron stars have an extremely high density of neutrons. If a neutron star is disrupted, singular atoms can quickly capture a number of neutrons and undergo multiple decays. This leads to the formation of much heavier elements like uranium. Before this study, the creation of gold was attributed only to neutron star collisions, or kilonovas. When astronomers observed a neutron star collision in 2017 through telescopes, they found the collision could create heavy elements such as gold, platinum and lead. However, these collisions are believed to have happened relatively later in the history of the universe, in the past several billion years. However, the archival telescopic data, which was previously indecipherable, showed that magnetar giant flares formed much earlier. Hence, the study indicates that the first gold could have been made from magnetar giant flares. NASA has an upcoming mission that can follow up on these results. The Compton Spectrometer and Imager (COSI) is a gamma-ray telescope that is expected to launch in 2027. COSI will study energetic phenomena in the Milky Way and beyond, such as magnetar giant flares. According to the NASA website, COSI could identify individual elements created in the giant flares, helping to form a better understanding of the origin of the elements.
Time of India
05-05-2025
- Science
- Time of India
A new source of gold might be found in the most unlikely place
We often think of gold as a precious metal that we find here on Earth, but its journey might actually start from a massive cosmic explosion. For a long time, scientists believed that the rare collisions between neutron stars were the only known way gold and other heavy elements were created in the universe. But now, after reanalyzing old space data, there's a new twist to the story: magnetars– a special kind of neutron star– could also be involved in creating these heavy elements. This discovery gives us a new perspective on one of astronomy's biggest questions: how did some of the heaviest materials in the universe, like gold, come to be? Most of the lighter elements, like hydrogen, helium, and some lithium, were formed soon after the Big Bang. Heavier elements like iron came later, created in supernova explosions. But when it comes to gold, which is heavier than iron, its origin has remained one of the biggest mysteries in astrophysics . 'It's a pretty fundamental question in terms of the origin of complex matter in the universe,' said Anirudh Patel, lead author of the study and a doctoral researcher in physics at Columbia University. 'It's a fun puzzle that hasn't actually been solved.' Until now, the only confirmed way gold is created in space was through the collision of two neutron stars. According to the report, these events, called kilonovas , produce strong gravitational waves, bright bursts of radiation, and heavy elements like gold and platinum. A well-known example of this was seen in 2017, which became a key moment in our understanding of cosmic chemistry. by Taboola by Taboola Sponsored Links Sponsored Links Promoted Links Promoted Links You May Like Google Brain Co-Founder Andrew Ng, Recommends: Read These 5 Books And Turn Your Life Around Blinkist: Andrew Ng's Reading List Undo However, there's a timing issue. 'It is believed that most neutron star mergers occurred only in the past several billion years,' explained study co-author Eric Burns, an astrophysicist at Louisiana State University. That raises the question: how did heavy elements appear so early in the universe's history? To dig deeper into this, researchers turned to data from a powerful magnetar flare that was spotted in December 2004 by the INTEGRAL space mission. At the time, the gamma-ray signal was recorded, but no one really knew what it meant. When the team compared this flare with predictions from earlier models, especially those by Brian Metzger, a professor at Columbia University, the findings were eye-opening. 'When initially building our model and making our predictions back in December 2024, none of us knew the signal was already in the data. And none of us could have imagined that our theoretical models would fit the data so well. It was quite an exciting holiday season for all of us,' Patel shared. NASA's RHESSI and Wind satellites also picked up supporting signals, adding even more credibility to the discovery. Magnetars are a special kind of neutron star. They have incredibly strong magnetic fields and are known for releasing bright, short-lived flares. Scientists believe these bursts are caused by what they call 'starquakes.' 'Neutron stars have a crust and a superfluid core,' said Burns, as quoted by CNN. 'The motion under the surface builds up stress on the surface, which can eventually cause a starquake. On magnetars, these starquakes produce very short bursts of X-rays. Just like on Earth, you (have) periods where a given star is particularly active, producing hundreds or thousands of flares in a few weeks. And similarly, every once in a while, a particularly powerful quake occurs.' The team believes that these powerful flares could send material from the star's crust flying into space, and under the right conditions, this could lead to the creation of heavy elements. 'They hypothesized that the physical conditions of this explosive mass ejection were promising for the production of heavy elements,' Patel said. While the evidence is strong, experts not involved in the study have warned that the findings should be considered a possibility, not a definite conclusion. According to the report, Dr. Eleonora Troja, an astrophysicist at the University of Rome who led the team that discovered X-rays from the 2017 neutron star collision, said: '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.' She also noted the unpredictable nature of magnetars. 'Magnetars are very messy objects,' she said, as quoted by CNN. Because the formation of heavy elements requires very specific conditions, there's a chance that magnetars could end up creating lighter elements like zirconium or silver instead. 'Therefore, I wouldn't go so far as to say that a new source of gold has been discovered,' she added. 'Rather, what's been proposed is an alternative pathway for its production.' The researchers believe that huge magnetar flares could account for up to 10% of the heavy elements in our galaxy. However, more observations are needed to fully understand their role. NASA's upcoming Compton Spectrometer and Imager (COSI) mission, set to launch in 2027, could provide clearer answers. It will be able to observe gamma rays from these flares, helping to confirm if magnetars can actually produce gold and similar elements. As Patel reflected on the larger implications, he said, 'It's very cool to think about how some of the stuff in my phone or my laptop was forged in this extreme explosion (over) the course of our galaxy's history.' The study was published in The Astrophysical Journal Letters.
