Study: Dead stars colliding forged gold on Earth

Study: Dead stars colliding forged gold on Earth
Updated 23 July 2013
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Study: Dead stars colliding forged gold on Earth

Study: Dead stars colliding forged gold on Earth

LOS ANGELES: Scientists say they have fresh evidence that all the gold on Earth was forged from ancient collisions of dead stars.
Telescopes recently detected a strange glow in a distant galaxy. Researchers say the glow came from the collision of dead stars.
Astronomers have long known that lighter elements such as carbon and oxygen are created within a star. But that can’t produce heavier elements like gold.
It was thought that gold was created in a supernova explosion. But the new research points to a different stellar process involving the collisions of dead or neutron stars that occurred long before the solar system existed.
The new work was led by Harvard-affiliated researchers and will appear in a future issue of the Astrophysical Journal Letters.