NASA/JPL-Caltech
Artistic conception of Magnetar to lose material to space.
It is more than a third of the mass of the earth. Discovery arises after scientists finally explained an intriguing astronomical signal observed over 20 years ago in December 2004.
Gigantic eruptions of magnetaresstars of supermagnetized neutrons, may be responsible for the production of up to 10% of gold, platinum and other heavy elements of the galaxy Through an intense nuclear process known as a rapid process of neutral capture, or process r.
The conclusions are from a study on Tuesday at The Astrophysical Journal Letters, which reveals that these explosive cosmic events are actually the source of some of the rare and most precious elements in the universe.
The discovery arises after scientists finally explained an intriguing astronomical signal observed over 20 years ago in December 2004.
At the time, the telescopes detected a huge explosion of gamma rays from a magnetar, a type of neutral star with magnetic fields bilions of times stronger than those on earth. Although the primary explosion – which has emitted more energy in a few seconds than the sun produces in a million years – was quickly attributed to Magnetar, a weaker secondary signal that reached the peak 10 minutes later, remained a mystery for two decades, recalls the.
Now researchers at the Flatiron Institute’s Computational Astrophysics Center in New York have determined that this second signal marked the formation of heavy elements such as gold and platinum.
Their findings show that the explosion probably produced more than one third of the Earth’s mass in such metals – about Two kilograms quadrilions.
“This is only the second time we have directly observed the place of birth of these elements,” said co -author Brian Metzger, senior scientist at Flatron Institute and professor at Columbia University. “It’s a substantial leap in our understanding of how the heaviest elements in the universe are formed.”
Until recently, astronomers believed that the primary origin of the heavy elements was the cataclysmic collision of neutral stars. These remnants ultra-dense mass of mass stars are known to contain the extreme conditions necessary for the formation of elements of process R. However, such events are rare, which led scientists to suspect that additional sources were involved in the process.
The new calculations support the idea that magnetres can fill this gap. Their intense eruptions can eject stars crust material into space, creating the environments rich in neutrons necessary for the nucleosynthesis of process R. As unstable radioactive nuclei decrease for stable forms, including gold, they emit a characteristic gamma shine – Exactly the type of signal observed in 2004, but never explained so far.
“This type of event had been widely forgotten,” Metzger said. “But when we applied our model, it corresponded perfectly to the observations.”
The investigation also offers potential insights on cosmic history. The doctoral student and main author Anirudh Patel, from Columbia University, points out that the explosions of Magnetares can occur much earlier In the life of a galaxy than the neutron star mergers.
