The gold came to our planet purely by luck?

Gold is one of the Earth's most precious metals and was worshiped on our planet since the beginning of the recorded history. Throughout the thousands of years gold has become not only a monetary standard but also a key factor for many symbolisms and ideologies. But how did the gold get on our planet?

According to the dominant scientific theory that was confirmed by the latest scientific research by the scientists at the University of Bristol the origin of gold on our planet are meteorites or to be more precise meteorite bombardment. The scientists believe this event took place some 200 million years after the formation of our planet.

In the period of the earth's core formation molten iron sank to the centre taking with it vast majority of gold as well as other Earth's precious metals such as platinum and silver. Gold, as well as other precious metals are however tens to thousands of times more abundant in Earth's silicate mantle than anticipated. The dominant scientific theory explains this by the gigantic meteorite shower that hit Earth after the core formed adding gold to the mantle alone instead of being completely hidden in the deep interior.

In order to confirm this theory Bristol scientists analyzed 4 billion years old rocks from Greenland and their conclusion was that gold has been added to our planet purely by luck when the Earth was hit by about 20 billion billion tonnes of asteroidal materia.

And what could be the origin of gold in our Universe? There are several interesting theories among which mostly accepted seem to be the one claiming the gold is a byproduct of neutron-rich explosions such as the collision of neutron stars.