Gold, silver, zirconium and platinum are precious metals that are highly valuable on Earth, but their production in outer space is sufficient, since they are collectively produced from stellar-related processes, the online portal reviewed Sputnik.
According to the specialist of the Institute of Nuclear Sciences (ICN), of the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM), Fabio de Colli, explosions related to neutron stars throw precious metals into space where they merge with planets in their formation stage. training.
Through a conference for high school students, the researcher explained that depending on the number of electrons, neutrons and protons, elements such as gold, hydrogen or magnesium are baptized.
The expert inside the stars pointed out that nuclear reactions are generated and turn hydrogen into helium and release energy and cause its temperature to rise, and in this sense when stars cannot maintain this process, they increase in size and die in the form of supernovae that throw the elements into space.
De Cole pointed out that the heaviest elements are produced in the so-called neutron stars, and the researcher added that the most massive of them live in pairs, allowing them to be studied outside the different spectra of light.
Recently, the LIGO project began analyzing them using gravitational waves, which in 2017 was able to capture the merging of two neutron stars in a process in which elements heavier than iron are formed.
“Imagine that in this event that we observed in 2017, more than one Earth’s mass of gold was produced, so imagine the amount of heavier elements being produced in these things,” de Cole said. WIL/JMP