Your sweetheart gives you a piece of gold jewelry as a present to celebrate your passing your astronomy class.

Question

Your sweetheart gives you a piece of gold jewelry as a present to celebrate your passing your astronomy class. Where did the gold atoms in that gift originally come from (where were they most likely made)?

Answer 1

a star

Answer 2

More specifically than just a star, a supernova explosion. Nucleosynthesis of nuclei significantly larger than iron is an endothermic reaction and so requires a serious excess of energy to occur. The release of a few solar rest masses of energy creates such an environment, even though 99% of the energy escapes as high energy neutrinos. The remaining one percent can drive nucleosynthesis quite far, creating elements such as gold. The relative proportions of heavy elements found in the solar system correspond to the proportions predicted by our understanding of nuclear physics in such an environment.