There’s too much gold in the universe. No one knows where it came from

Oct 3, 2020
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There's actually an easy explanation for our abundance of gold, one that's part of the privileged planet thesis. It says that we see on Earth and in our Solar System is atypical of the galaxy as a whole. Gold is as rare elsewhere as the science predicts. But in another of many lucky accidents, a source of gold seeded our Solar System with an abundance of it. There's nothing unusual about that. On Earth itself, gold is unevenly distributed. The same could be true of our galaxy.
 
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There's actually an easy explanation for our abundance of gold,

The article was on work detailing the abundance in the universe, as well as explanations for it - the work shows the explanations are complex.

Despite that complexity many element abundances are explained, some are not and some like gold are IIRC (I browsed the paper days ago) nearly so - the work in progress is promising.

"Something is raining gold across the universe." I don't know why they mentioned gold or in part of the article refer to recent work looking specifically on element isotope abundances in our own system to study local sources but at a guess it makes the article more click-worthy. I don't think there is an unusual amount of gold in our system or that it was discussed in the work, but maybe I have missed that - but as you say, some sources are local (and recent) so our mileage may vary on the average abundance. C.f. how our solar system was believed to be uncommonly metal rich, but with better statistics it lies just at the edge of the median peak so nothing but random outcome on most elements.

Uneven distribution of crust elements is curious though. Seems to me the claim among geologists is that generic sorting is thermal due to magma melts (I may have gotten that wrong, I read that in passing the other day and haven't checked it yet). But there are also biosphere mechanisms that for instance laid down banded iron formations and pyrite ("fool's gold").

By your prompting me to search, I see that gold is a bit complex in that regard. Gold belongs with rare earth elements to the element group that mostly sank to the core during Earth accretion, so the current abundance is due to later impacts.

And gold sorts in many ways: "On Earth, gold is found in ores in rock formed from the Precambrian time onward.[66] It most often occurs as a native metal, typically in a metal solid solution with silver (i.e. as a gold silver alloy). Such alloys usually have a silver content of 8–10%. Electrum is elemental gold with more than 20% silver. Electrum's color runs from golden-silvery to silvery, dependent upon the silver content. The more silver, the lower the specific gravity. Native gold occurs as very small to microscopic particles embedded in rock, often together with quartz or sulfide minerals such as "fool's gold", which is a pyrite.[67] These are called lode deposits. The metal in a native state is also found in the form of free flakes, grains or larger nuggets[66] that have been eroded from rocks and end up in alluvial deposits called placer deposits. Such free gold is always richer at the surface of gold-bearing veins[clarification needed] owing to the oxidation of accompanying minerals followed by weathering, and washing of the dust into streams and rivers, where it collects and can be welded by water action to form nuggets." [ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gold#Occurrence ]
 
Oct 5, 2020
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Sounds like an unknown answer needs a new solution. We know of super massive black holes and super novas. Why would it be unreasonable that a black hole reaches a gravitational saturation and explodes. That would explain lots of things including gold.
 
Oct 5, 2020
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Or perhaps our distant ancestors could make Gold? There is information in the ancient Vedic scriptures of gold being produced from the mixture of mercury and bellmetal ( I don't have the recipe) as well as being produced from other sources unbeknownst to us.
 
Sounds like an unknown answer needs a new solution. We know of super massive black holes and super novas. Why would it be unreasonable that a black hole reaches a gravitational saturation and explodes. That would explain lots of things including gold.

As I commented earlier, the work is complex but promising so far.

But of course they are looking for new sources as solution. Black holes would not be among them since they cannot explode, their main characteristic is precisely that they are so compact that the integrated surface gravity is too strong for any escape. ) Black holes can eventually shrink and disappear through the quantum effect of Hawking radiation.)

By the way, today black hole discovery and theory work scientists were awarded this year's Nobel Prize in Physics (prompted by the recent black hole shadow image no doubt)!
 
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