Gold
Native gold, found as rare microscopic grains in some chondrites and iron meteorites.
Key facts
- Formula
- Au
- Family
- Metals and alloys
- Crystal system
- Cubic
What it is
Gold is a soft, dense, yellow metal that hardly reacts with anything. Like platinum, it prefers to dissolve in iron metal, so most of Earth's gold sank to the core when the planet formed.
Where it is found
Microscopic grains of native gold, often alloyed with silver or copper, have been found in a few ordinary and carbonaceous chondrites and in some iron meteorites. In most meteorites gold is present only as traces dissolved in the metal; its amount is one of the elements used to sort irons into groups.
How it is recognised
Grains are found with the scanning electron microscope and identified by microprobe analysis.
Did you know?
Much of the gold in Earth's crust may have been delivered by a late veneer of meteorites after the core formed.
A single gram of gold can be beaten into a sheet about a square metre across.