The explosion created a planet's worth of gold in just half a second.

One of the biggest explosions in our galaxy created many heavy elements such as gold, platinum and other rare metals (Photo: SciTechDaily).

On December 27, 2004, a violent gamma-ray burst from a magnetar about 30,000 light years from Earth caused many satellites to record unusual signals.

The event, one of the brightest explosions ever observed in the Milky Way, has now been confirmed to have been the source of a massive amount of heavy elements, including gold and platinum, with a total mass equivalent to a planet. Remarkably, it all happened in just half a second.

According to a recent study published in the Astrophysical Journal Letters, a team of scientists at Columbia University has provided convincing evidence for a question that has been controversial for decades in astrophysics: Where are the heaviest elements in the universe, such as gold, platinum, etc., actually created?

The "smelter" of the universe

Unlike light elements like hydrogen and helium that were formed after the Big Bang, and intermediate elements like oxygen and iron that were created inside the cores of ordinary stars, elements heavier than iron (Fe) require much more extreme conditions. And that's beyond the scope of supernovae.

For years, scientists thought neutron star mergers were the main source of these elements. But new findings from the 2004 explosion added a compelling candidate. That's magnetars.

This visual image shows a giant flare erupting from a magnetized star, known as a magnetar (Image: NASA/JPL).

A magnetar is a type of supermagnetic neutron star that possesses the strongest magnetic field in the universe, 10 trillion times stronger than a normal refrigerator magnet.

In the giant explosion of 2004, the magnetar SGR 1806-20 released a huge amount of energy, far exceeding what the Sun could emit in 250,000 years, in just a short period of 0.5 seconds.

Notably, after the main gamma ray, ESA's INTEGRAL space telescope also detected a weaker burst of radiation lasting for hours, which had been recorded but had no satisfactory explanation at the time.

Now, the Columbia team has shown that this lingering radiation is a sign of the radioactive decay of newly synthesized heavy elements through the r-process, a nuclear chain reaction that occurs when the magnetar's crust is torn apart during the explosion.

Gold on Earth may have come from an explosion 30,000 light years ago

Anirudh Patel, who performed simulation calculations in late 2024, realized that the 2004 light signal perfectly matched the pattern of gamma radiation from the radioactive decay of heavy elements.

It is estimated that at least 10% of all gold, platinum and precious metals on Earth originate from such events.

At least 10% of all gold, platinum and precious metals on Earth originated from an explosion 30,000 light years ago (Photo: Getty).

"We may be wearing atoms that were forged in a violent cosmic explosion tens of thousands of light years away. It is the accumulation of stellar outbursts throughout the history of the Galaxy that may have contributed to the formation of our planet's precious minerals," said Professor Brian Metzger, representative of the research team.

This discovery also shows that magnetars are not only powerful sources of gamma rays, but also extremely efficient "element forges" of the universe, laying the foundation for many future studies on the structure and evolution of matter in the early universe.

This is the second confirmed event (after a neutron star merger in 2017) that has the potential to form superheavy elements through a clear physical mechanism.

This discovery not only changes the way scientists view the origin of precious elements on Earth, but also opens the door to new research on the role of magnetars in the chemical evolution of the universe.

More interestingly, what was once considered a myth in alchemy (or the process of turning matter into gold) is now a reality taking place in the heart of exploding stars tens of thousands of light years away.

Source: https://dantri.com.vn/khoa-hoc/vu-no-tao-ra-luong-vang-tuong-duong-mot-hanh-tinh-chi-trong-nua-giay-20250509114700446.htm