Scientists at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the University of New Hampshire have said that neutron star mergers have produced more heavy elements over the past 2.5 billion years than mergers between neutron stars and black holes..

Most of the elements lighter than iron are contained in the cores of stars.. The glowing center of the luminary feeds the synthesis of protons, squeezing them together and giving rise to heavy elements. But scientists have long wondered where gold, platinum and other heavy elements come from, the formation of which requires more energy than stars can generate..

In a new paper, the researchers stated that mergers in a binary system of neutron stars or collisions of two such objects over the past 2.5 billion years have led to the appearance of more heavy elements than mergers between a neutron star and a black hole..

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A giant planet and a dead star indicate what will happen after the death of the Sun.

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Scientists compared the two types of mergers in terms of how many heavy elements eventually form, and concluded that binary systems of neutron stars are the main source of gold and platinum and other heavy elements known today.. The discovery will also determine the amount of heavy elements that appear in the universe..

When nuclear fusion occurs in stars, they need energy to combine protons and create heavy elements.. But it takes much more energy to form elements like platinum.. At first, the researchers thought that the source of their appearance could be supernova explosions.. When a massive star explodes in a supernova, the iron at its center can combine with lighter elements to form heavier.

But later, scientists recorded gravitational waves that were released by the merger of neutron stars, and found signatures of heavy elements in them.. The amount of gold that appeared as a result of the merger was several times greater than the mass of the Earth.. That is, binary neutron stars are more efficient at forming heavy elements than supernovae..

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Earlier, astronomers from the University of Florence announced that they were able to find traces of the first stars that appeared in the Universe.. It is likely that their elements are contained in the star AS0039, which is located in the Sculptor dwarf galaxy at a distance of 290 thousand light years from Earth..