The origin of many of the most valuable elements in the periodic table, such as gold, silver and platinum, is a mystery because these heavy elements did not exist in the first moments of life of the Universe. How did these elements come about?
Now, a team of scientists from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) believes they have found an explanation to such an ancient enigma. Because a large amount of energy is required to create these heavy elements, scientists have discovered what may provide the answer: an ancient dwarf galaxy called Reticulum II that lies 98,000 light-years away (orbiting our own). galaxy) and that it contains stars with a really colossal amount of very heavy materials, including gold, silver and platinum.
“Understanding how these heavy elements were able to form is one of the most difficult problems in nuclear physics. The production of these very heavy elements requires so much energy that it is impossible to manufacture them experimentally. Their manufacturing process simply doesn’t work on Earth. For this reason, we have had to use stars and other cosmic objects as a laboratory ”, explains Anna Frebel, leader of the study.
The experts analyzed the light coming from several of the brightest stars in this galaxy with the twin Magellan telescopes located in Chile, discovering that they contained an impressive (and surprising) amount of these heavy elements. According to scientists, gold, silver, lead or platinum were created during explosions of neutron stars inside dwarf galaxies and then these became part of other stars and asteroids, eventually ending up on Earth.
” Without a doubt one of the things that I think attracts people to astronomy is understanding the origin of everything that surrounds us ,” says Alexander Ji, co-author of the work.
The small Reticulum II is one of the best options for detecting dark matter, and now it could also be the best corner of the universe to find out the origin of these materials and how they got to our planet.
The study has been published in the journal Nature.
