The gold on Earth was forged in space before it became part of our planet.

Gold feels like an Earth material because we dig it from Earth. But atoms do not care where humans find them. NASA explains that heavy elements such as gold can be created in extreme cosmic events, including neutron-star mergers. Those atoms then become part of later clouds of gas and dust that form stars and planets. So the gold in a ring or circuit board is not something Earth cooked up from scratch. Earth inherited it. The metal feels local because it is mined locally, but its origin story starts in violent space chemistry before it ever reached a planet.

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