How gold, platinum, and many rare earth elements form during neutron star mergers

Fusion reactions and radioactive decay produce elements inside stars

Hydrogen, present since the early universe, serves as fuel for the proton-proton chain, producing helium, which is then incorporated into the CNO cycle to produce carbon, nitrogen, and oxygen. Additional fusions of helium with these elements and subsequent decays via the alpha ladder produce elements up to iron and bismuth.

The formation of a neutron star through a core collapse lasts one-tenth of a second

Massive stars keep fusing heavier and heavier elements in their cores to produce energy that pushes against the weight of the star itself. However, the fusion of silicon into iron consumes energy and initiates a feedback loop that rapidly compresses the stellar core, creating neutrons and neutrinos from the combination of electrons and protons.

Neutron star collisions may be the universe's gold factories

In his last broadcast interview, Stephen Hawking comments on detecting gravitational waves from the collision of neutron stars. The event may serve as a new means of measuring cosmological distances and help identify revisions to general relativity.

More than 90% of the atoms in the human body were forged by stars

Excluding all of the universe's hydrogen and most of its helium and lithium that formed in the Big Bang, elements found in significant amounts in our bodies formed through nuclear fusion within stars, collisions between neutron stars, or stars undergoing supernova. For example, all of the oxygen (65% of our mass) came from massive stars exploding.

The hypothetical matter that neutron stars' cores may contain, including strange quarks

Models of the extreme pressures and energies in neutron stars suggest conditions resembling those believed to have existed within a fraction of a second after the Big Bang. In these environments, the quarks that make up protons and neutrons in trios may instead form pairs that combine to form one quantum object. (Some readers may experience a paywall.)

Neutron stars, the remains of some massive stars after they explode in a supernova, are the densest directly observable objects in the universe.

Watch an artist's impression of two neutron stars merging in a kilonova explosion

Such an event produces enough light to briefly outshine an entire galaxy and to produce characteristic gravitational wave and gamma-ray signals. On August 17, 2017, these signals were captured by the LIGO–Virgo and Fermi/INTEGRAL observatories, respectively, from a kilonova about 130 million light-years away.

How fusion—which releases energy when two lighter atoms combine to form a heavier atom—differs from fission

How neutron stars resemble Earth, including harboring an atmosphere and 'mountains'

These stars maintain an atmosphere of hydrogen, helium, and carbon at approximately 2,000,000 degrees Celsius (3,600,000 degrees Fahrenheit), only a few thousandths of a millimeter thick, which envelops "mountains" about a millimeter high. Its interior consists of an inner and an outer crust surrounding inner and outer cores, all held together by enormous gravitational forces despite spinning multiple times a second.

Scientists turn alchemists, transforming transform lead into gold

Fulfilling alchemists' dreams, scientists at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) transmute lead into gold. While the 86 billion gold nuclei produced were short-lived, the experiment sheds light on how electromagnetic fields can play a critical role in nuclear transmutation.

Watch a visualization of a fission chain reaction

When a neutron collides with an atom, it is absorbed into the nucleus. If the resulting nucleus is unstable, it can undergo a series of decays that turn it into a less massive nucleus while releasing energy and other particles.

Neutron star types, categorized by the presence of strong magnetic fields and radiation beams

Magnetars have magnetic fields about 1,000 times stronger than the average neutron star—roughly a trillion times stronger than Earth's. Pulsars emit beams of radiation from their magnetic poles, which appear as flickering radio wave signals as the object spins.

The discovery of the neutron paved the way for nuclear weapons

In 1932, James Chadwick discovered the subatomic particle when trying to explain the radiation emitted by beryllium after it was bombarded with alpha particles. The radiation’s ability to eject protons from a target suggested a chargeless particle with slightly more mass than a proton.

Unusually stable, undiscovered elements may exist near atomic number 126

While heavier elements like uranium and plutonium are unstable and decay quickly, simulations suggest a pocket of stability exists for elements with approximately 126 protons and 184 neutrons. Such elements may have practical applications, such as americium, a synthetic element used in smoke detectors.

When they merge, black holes release multiple solar masses of energy

The energy emanates outward in the form of gravitational waves, which can be detected at observatories like LIGO. After merging, it is impossible to determine the characteristics of the two black holes that merged to create it.

While atoms are normally made of protons, neutrons, and electrons, exotic ones have been built with antimatter—alternate versions of normal matter that live for fractions of a second and are about a billion times as rare.

View the most expensive materials on Earth, led by those forged in particle accelerators

Californium-252—valued at $27.8M per gram, as of 2025—is far rarer and more valuable than gold, silver, or diamonds due to production and transportation costs. The most expensive substance ever found or created is antimatter, costing approximately $62.5T per gram.

Earth's core is leaking precious metals, including gold

Earth's core, containing 99.999% of all known gold, is leaking trace amounts of precious metals into the mantle. Advanced isotopic methods have detected this leakage at volcanoes in Hawai'i, providing new insights into the movement of material beneath Earth's surface.

An overview of the metals obtainable through deep-sea mining of nodules and crusts

Polymetallic nodules are a source of manganese, cobalt, nickel, copper, molybdenum, and platinum, which are used in batteries, fuel cells, and metal alloys of electric vehicles. Seamount crusts contain rare-earth elements deemed essential to US national and economic security, including neodymium and dysprosium used to make permanent magnets.

How scientists determine elemental composition based on the light emitted by cooling atoms

When electrons within an atom drop to a lower energy level closer to the nucleus, they lose energy and produce light with energy equal to the difference between the two energy levels. Because these levels and the corresponding emitted light are unique to each element, the light serves as a unique signature that can be compared to known lab samples for identification.

Experiments suggest nuking a metal-rich asteroid may strengthen it

Scientists exposed meteorite samples to proton irradiation at CERN to mimic the effects of a nuclear detonation. The material exhibited greater resistance to breaking after the exposure, suggesting nuclear weapons may better serve to deflect asteroids, not break them.

Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin discovered stars are mostly made of hydrogen and helium

At 25, her doctoral thesis challenged the then-common belief that stars were composed similarly to Earth. Several years later, Henry Norris Russell, who had initially dismissed her findings, independently made the same discovery and received credit for it.

View a gallery of neutron stars and related phenomena captured by Chandra

Launched on July 23, 1999, the Chandra X-ray Observatory is one of NASA's "Great Observatories" and has captured high-energy astronomical phenomena, including neutron stars and their surrounding nebulae, which are composed of the outer stellar layers expelled by their predecessors. Data from other observatories, including Hubble, help produce spectacular composite images.

Metals can be welded together in space without needing heat

On Earth, oxygen naturally reacts with metals to form an oxide layer on their surface, which prevents two different pieces from fusing when they come into contact. If the layer is worn away without oxygen to replenish it, metals can instead stick together upon impact—a phenomenon known as cold welding.

By organizing elements by atomic weight, Dmitri Mendeleev created the periodic table

The organization included groupings based on similar chemical properties and patterns in atomic weights. This left gaps that were used to predict the properties of elements yet to be discovered—including germanium and gallium—with high accuracy.

Metallic hydrogen exists in Jupiter and Saturn due to high pressure and temperature

This state of hydrogen has metallic properties, including conductivity, which powers these planets' magnetic fields. First theorized in the 1930s, its existence was confirmed through indirect evidence before being created in a Harvard lab in 2017.

How do planets form? An interview with a planetary scientist

Dr Farzana Meru, assistant professor and planetary scientist, shares how planets come to be in this interview. Protoplanetary discs are swirling, dusty, and gaseous formations that form and revolve around stars. Some 4,000 extra-solar planets have already been discovered, and through these protoplanetary discs more are on the way.

Geothermal power can reduce the dangerous mining of rare earth elements

Geothermal brines—mineral-rich underground fluids extracted for use in geothermal plants—contain small concentrations of REEs that can be recovered after energy generation. Although researchers suggest that this retrieval requires complex extraction methods at a significant scale to account for high flow rates, the chemical processes also occur in traditional REE processing.

See how fireworks are made and learn how metals like magnesium and copper are responsible for different colors.

Planeterrellas create artificial auroras that mimic the atmospheric displays of light by setting up an electric field between two metal balls in a jar filled with a small amount of air.

Radioactive elements can introduce software errors because the ionizing radiation they produce can detach electrons from atoms, and computer code relies on the distribution of electrons.

Watch how deep-sea mining equipment collects and processes polymetallic nodules—metal-rich, potato-shaped rocks—from the ocean floor and creates environmentally damaging plumes of sediments.

Shooting stars, or meteors, are fragments of asteroids and comets that burn up as they enter Earth's atmosphere, creating streaks in the sky called meteor showers.

The first image of a black hole was captured by creating an Earth-sized virtual observatory from a network of eight radio telescopes.

Massive blooms of microscopic plankton called dinoflagellates produce the neon blue light seen in glowing tides.

While the sun's gravity keeps the planets in orbit, their gravity also pulls on the sun, causing it and everything else in the solar system to orbit around a mutual balance point called the barycenter—the true center of the solar system.

In 1984, Operation Smash Hit intentionally crashed a 239-ton train into a nuclear waste canister at 100 miles per hour to prove the canister's safety, which remained completely intact and lost just 0.29 of its 100 pounds of pressure.

As of 2025, the most cited papers in science include a review of graphene, methods to improve image recognition, streamlining electron density calculations, and optimizing protein studies.

Sunflowers have long been a symbol of nuclear disarmament because they can extract large amounts of radioactive cesium from soil.

The deadliest aspect of volcanic eruptions is often not lava, but pyroclastic flows—avalanches of ash, gas, and rock that can move more than half the speed of sound.

Bone marrow (soft tissue found inside certain bones) generates roughly 500 billion new blood cells each day

Researchers believe the brain consolidates memories, processes emotions, and plans for the future during dream states

Apollo astronauts left items in the moon's 'toss zone,' including golf balls, family photos, and bags of human waste, to make room for lunar rocks.

One disco producer saw 'Star Wars' four times on its opening weekend and was so inspired that he recorded the album 'Star Wars and Other Intergalactic Funk,' which produced a chart-topping single.

At the beginning of the 20th century, a group of young men ate standard American food—replete with food additives like borax and formaldehyde—as part of government research to better understand food safety.

SpaceX's S-1 or 'prospectus' revealed many previously unknown details about the company, including its unprofitability despite doing $18.7B in revenue in 2025, exactly how many voting shares Elon Musk will have in the company (roughly 85%), and more.

The 1987 Nintendo video game 'Stadium Events' isn't known for being particularly fun, but its scarcity has made it a highly sought-after item that has sold for up to $35K at auction.

US housing costs have risen by roughly 175% between 1991 and 2026—but a growing number of Gen Zers are becoming homeowners anyway. In 2025, 4% of homebuyers were Gen Z, up from 3% the year before.

The US dollar is the most widely circulated currency in the world, and is involved in nearly 90% of global transactions

Use this tool to calculate the dollar value of your parental mental load, from meal planning to coordinating after-school care, then see resources that help generate solutions.