Where does gold come from?

Where does gold come from?
Gold has always played a significant role in history.
People have used it as money,
made jewellery from it,
or offered it to the gods.
Gold has a high value
because of its rarity
and the hazardous and challenging process of extracting it.
But where does gold come from?
To find out, we have to travel back both in time and space.
Gold, in fact,
was formed in stars that died billions of years ago,
not on Earth.
Due to the enormous pressure
and temperature in the core of the stars,
atomic nuclei are compressed,
and eventually they fuse to form new and different atoms.
This process is called nuclear fusion.
First, hydrogen, which constitutes most of the mass of the star,
is transformed into helium.
When the star runs out of hydrogen in the process,
helium fusion begins.
If the mass of the star is large enough, the process continues,
and heavier elements are produced:
carbon,
neon,
oxygen, silicon and, finally, iron.
At the end of its life cycle, the star collapses
and its outer layer is blown away by a massive explosion;
this is called a supernova.
It is a very rapid and dramatic process,
resulting in the previously formed elements
fusing with neutrons,
thereby creating elements that are heavier than iron -
gold, for example.
Due to the explosion, all the elements created within the star
become scattered in space light years away
and, while floating in the interstellar medium,
these elements later condense into new planets and stars;
this is how the solar system and thus the Earth were formed.
Ultimately, those who thought gold was a gift from heaven
were not entirely mistaken.