Cosmic Clue: Magnetar Flares May Forge Gold, Platinum and Uranium in Deep Space

Making the universe’s bling

R-process elements like gold, platinum and uranium are too heavy to form in the fusion furnaces of normal stars. Instead, they require conditions with free-flying neutrons and intense heat — typically found in rare, cataclysmic events.

Until recently, the leading candidate was a kilonova: the merger of two neutron stars. A 2017 observation of such a collision provided direct evidence of heavy element formation and was dubbed a “cosmic gold factory.”

But kilonovas are relatively infrequent and tend to occur later in a galaxy’s evolution. Magnetars, on the other hand, may have been active much earlier — within a few hundred million years of the Big Bang.

Metzger and his colleagues estimate that a single magnetar flare could eject as many as 2 million billion billion kilograms of heavy atoms. Each flare acts as a kind of elemental forge. As the magnetar’s magnetic field snaps and reorganizes, it sends shock waves through the crust, hurling material into space. This ejected matter enters a crucible of extreme pressure and neutron density, triggering chain reactions that build up complex nuclei.

The conditions, researchers say, are just right for the formation of r-process elements — not just gold and platinum, but also uranium and other neutron-rich atoms.

More research needed

Not everyone in the astrophysical community is ready to declare magnetars the newest gold mine of the cosmos.

Dr. Eleonora Troja, an associate professor at the University of Rome who led the discovery of X-rays from the 2017 neutron star merger, urged caution while speaking to CNN.

“The production of gold from this magnetar is a possible explanation for its gamma-ray glow, one among many others as the paper honestly discusses at its end,” she said.

“I wouldn’t go so far as to say that a new source of gold has been discovered.”

She pointed out that magnetars are “very messy objects” whose flares can sometimes yield lighter elements like zirconium or silver instead of gold, depending on the specific conditions.

Astronomers now eagerly await the next giant magnetar flare, hoping to catch it in real time.

Future missions like NASA’s Compton Spectrometer and Imager, slated for a 2027 launch, promise greater sensitivity to detect and study these fleeting signals across multiple wavelengths.

For now, scientists have added one more explosive event to the list of stellar alchemists.

Whether magnetars are a main supplier of heavy elements or just one piece of the puzzle, they’ve earned a spotlight in the ongoing investigation into how the universe crafts some of its most valuable matter.