Discover new gold form in the center of Earth

This new finding is expected to impact many current experiments using gold as the standard.

A group of scientists from Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory and Carnegie Science Institute have found two completely new types of golden molecular structures while studying the transformation of precious metals in extreme conditions.

Picture 1 of Discover new gold form in the center of Earth
With harsh conditions in the center of Earth, scientists discovered new types of gold.

Using extremely powerful lasers, the scientists quickly heated a block of gold to extremely high temperatures, and at the same time withstood the compressive force of up to 322 gigapascal - similar to the Earth's core.

The researchers discovered that when gold was exposed to rapid compression and warming, it worked differently, changing the centralized surface structure, in which atoms lie on the "sides" of molecular mass, into a cube in the middle. In which atoms get pressure on the center of the cube, at about 220 gigapascal. When the pressure reached nearly 330 gigapascals, found in the center of the Earth, gold turned into liquid.

These two new forms contradict the popular belief that gold maintains its structure under extreme pressure, having found use in various pressure experiments using gold as a standard.

The results of this experiment show that the metal maintains stability in its molecular structure only under gradual increase in pressure and below normal temperature.