Gold production in the universe

Gold is thought to have been produced in supernova nucleosynthesis, and from the collision of neutron stars,
and to have been present in the dust from which the Solar System formed.

Traditionally, gold in the universe is thought to have formed by the r-process (rapid neutron capture) in
supernova nucleosynthesis, but more recently it has been suggested that gold and other elements heavier than
iron may also be produced in quantity by the r-process in the collision of neutron stars. In both cases, satellite
spectrometers at first only indirectly detected the resulting gold. However, in August 2017, the spectroscopic
signatures of heavy elements, including gold, were observed by electromagnetic observatories in the GW170817
neutron star merger event, after gravitational wave detectors confirmed the event as a neutron star merger.
Current astrophysical models suggest that this single neutron star merger event generated between 3 and 13
Earth masses of gold. This amount, along with estimations of the rate of occurrence of these neutron star merger
events, suggests that such mergers may produce enough gold to account for most of the abundance of this
element in the universe