But even given its rarity, there's a lot more of it around than there should be. It's assumed that gold forms in the heart of giant, dying stars, when they go supernova. However a quick calculation of just how much gold that would produce suggests there's way too much of it around. Now some astronomers have an alternate suggestion for where some of that extra gold came from. They say it might be formed in spectacular collisions between neutron stars.
Neutron stars are the incredibly dense remnants of ancient stars.
The astronomers calculated that when neutron stars collide, there would be enough energy liberated to create large quantities of exotic metals like gold and platinum. The explosion would then scatter the atoms through space, where they could be taken up by our forming solar system. NASA has put applications for its astronaut training program on hold. This is the first time in more than a decade that NASA has stopped the process. At the moment there's no demand for more astronauts.