Cosmic Shake and Glitter

For decades, scientists have wondered how the universe forged its heaviest elements, such as gold, platinum, and uranium.  

Current research has found the explosive collision of neutron stars can create these metals but a new study is now suggesting there may be another, earlier and messier culprit: Magnetars. 

Magnetars are rare, hyper-magnetized neutron stars, born from the collapsed cores of massive stars.  

They’re already among the most extreme objects in the cosmos – dense enough that a teaspoon of their material would weigh a billion tons on Earth. But when they undergo violent “starquakes,” these stellar oddities might also eject matter that forms heavy elements. 

“It’s a pretty fundamental question in terms of the origin of complex matter in the universe,” study lead author Anirudh Patel said in a statement. “It’s a fun puzzle that hasn’t actually been solved.” 

Patel and his colleagues turned to 20-year-old data from a 2004 magnetar flare captured by multiple satellites, including NASA’s RHESSI and Wind missions, as well as the European Space Agency’s INTEGRAL mission.  

Their model predicted what a gamma-ray signature from the creation of heavy elements might look like. To their astonishment, a mysterious signal found in the archival data matched that prediction almost perfectly. 

“It was noted at the time, but nobody had any conception of what it could be,” said co-author Eric Burns, an astrophysicist at Louisiana State University.  

The researchers believe the conditions in giant magnetar flares could enable a rapid neutron-capture process by essentially bombarding lighter elements with neutrons until they transform into gold or heavier metals.  

Their findings suggest magnetars might be responsible for up to 10 percent of the heavy elements in our Milky Way galaxy. 

Still, not everyone is convinced. 

Eleonora Troja of the University of Rome in Italy, who helped confirm gold production in a neutron star merger in a 2017 study, told CNN that the new evidence is “in no way comparable” and that magnetars are “very messy objects.” 

Troja was not involved in the new study. 

The team hopes NASA’s upcoming COSI mission will help confirm whether these cosmic firecrackers really are seeding the galaxy with precious metals.  

“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,” said Patel.