The history of Gold

In medieval times,

alchemists tried to acquire the seemingly not possible.

They wanted to convert lowly lead into sparkling gold.

records portrays those human beings as aged eccentrics,

but if only they had acknowledged that their dreams were clearly attainable.

certainly, nowadays we can manufacture gold on the earth

thank you to fashionable innovations

that the ones medieval alchemists overlooked by some centuries.

but to recognize how this valuable steel

have become embedded in our planet initially,

we should gaze upwards on the stars.

Gold is extraterrestrial.

in place of springing up from the planet's rocky crust,

it was genuinely cooked up in area

and is present on earth due to cataclysmic stellar explosions

referred to as supernovae.

Stars are typically made up of hydrogen, the most effective and lightest detail.

The great gravitational strain of a lot cloth

compresses and triggers nuclear fusion inside the big name's middle.

This manner releases energy from the hydrogen,

making the famous person shine.

Over many thousands and thousands of years,

fusion transforms hydrogen into heavier factors:

helium, carbon, and oxygen,

burning next elements quicker and faster to attain iron and nickel.

however, at that point nuclear fusion no longer releases sufficient power,

and the strain from the middle peters out.

The outer layers disintegrate into the center,

and bouncing back from this sudden injection of strength,

the megastar explodes forming a supernova.

the intense pressure of a collapsing famous person is so excessive,

that subatomic protons and electrons are forced together within the middle,

forming neutrons.

Neutrons don't have any repelling electric fee

so they are easily captured with the aid of the iron organization factors.

more than one neutron captures enable the formation of heavier factors

that a star beneath regular occasions cannot shape,

from silver to gold,

beyond lead and on to uranium.

In extreme contrast to the million yr transformation of hydrogen to helium,

the creation of the heaviest elements in a supernova

takes region in handiest seconds.

however what will become of the gold after the explosion?

The increasing supernova shockwave propels its elemental debris

via the interstellar medium,

triggering a swirling dance of gasoline and dirt

that condenses into new stars and planets.

Earth's gold changed into in all likelihood added this manner

before being kneaded into veins by way of geothermal pastime.

Billions of years later, we now extract this valuable product by means of mining it,

an highly-priced process it truly is compounded by way of gold's rarity.

In reality, all of the gold that we have mined in history

can be piled into simply three Olympic-size swimming pools,

although this represents a variety of mass

because gold is ready 20 instances denser than water.

So, can we produce extra of this coveted commodity?

clearly, sure.

the use of particle accelerators, we will mimic the complex nuclear reactions

that create gold in stars.

however those machines can most effective construct gold atom by atom.

So it'd take almost the age of the universe to provide one gram

at a fee hugely exceeding the cutting-edge cost of gold.

So that's no longer a very good solution.

but if we had been to reach a hypothetical point

where we would mined all of the Earth's buried gold,

there are other locations we may want to appearance.

the ocean holds an envisioned 20 million heaps of dissolved gold

but at extremely miniscule concentrations making its recovery too pricey at present.

possibly one day, we'll see gold rushes to tap the mineral wealth

of the opposite planets of our solar device.

And who is aware of?

maybe a few destiny supernova will arise near sufficient

to bathe us with its treasure

and with a bit of luck no longer get rid of all existence on this planet within the process.