APOD: On the Origin of Gold (2011 Sep 11)

[DavidLeodis]

It amused and also intrigued me that the "duration" in the explanation is a link to the APOD of 2005 October 17, which is titled 'Short Gamma-Ray Bursts Localized'. The image in that APOD is the same as that in the APOD of 2011 September 11. Whereas the topic for the APOD of 2011 September 11 is about gold the explanation to the APOD of 2005 October 17 has however no direct mention of gold at all and is about gamma-ray bursts.

[islader2]

@ alter-ego Your response to "guest" was outstanding. However, sending "guest" into the realm of Godel might be a hopeless task; because, as I see it IMHO, Godel's work is as complicated as Einstein's relativity. Anyway, "guest" posted on other issues so that psychometric analysis of his graphology would seem to indicate==in my professional opinion==that it would be better if our cadre of solons would ignore "guest." Thanx.

[Visitor]

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A wide and large variety of different people use "Guest" as their name.




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[rdf]

Interesting APOD!
Does this suggest that a prior generation of stars in our immediate neighborhood (pre-Sun) may have included nutron stars that collided?
If only a few Jupiters worth of material were ejected, wouldn't some merged core remain (possibly precluding the formation of our sun)?
Perhaps it would have been slung off into oblivion, leaving a cloud of heavy-element-tainted gas and dust to form into our solar system and us.
Or is the idea that colliding neutron stars at some astronomically modest distance from us would have irradiated our solar system?
How far away could it be and still enrich us in heavy elements due to neutron bombardment alone?
Most importantly I ask you this: If we positioned the Federal Reserve next to a strong neutron source, would that get us back any closer to a gold standard?
We won't know until we try.
Thank you APOD!

[Beyond]

Interesting APOD!
Does this suggest that a prior generation of stars in our immediate neighborhood (pre-Sun) may have included nutron stars that collided?
If only a few Jupiters worth of material were ejected, wouldn't some merged core remain (possibly precluding the formation of our sun)?
Perhaps it would have been slung off into oblivion, leaving a cloud of heavy-element-tainted gas and dust to form into our solar system and us.
Or is the idea that colliding neutron stars at some astronomically modest distance from us would have irradiated our solar system?
How far away could it be and still enrich us in heavy elements due to neutron bombardment alone?
Most importantly I ask you this: If we positioned the Federal Reserve next to a strong neutron source, would that get us back any closer to a gold standard?
We won't know until we try.
Thank you APOD!

We know already that that won't work. There is nothing in the Federal Reserve but paper! It is also a private organization. But it just may make us feel better to see how neutron star radiation effects the thieves people who run it.

[owlice]

The central bank of the US (Federal Reserve System) is a private-public organization. The 12 Federal Reserve Banks are non-governmental non-profits (.org); the Federal Reserve Board in Washington, DC is public (.gov).

[rstevenson]

... There is nothing in the Federal Reserve but paper! ...

From the Wikipedia article The United States Bullion Depository, aka "Fort Knox"...

The United States Bullion Depository holds 4,577 metric tons (5046 tons) of gold bullion (147.2 million oz. troy). This is roughly 2.5% of all the gold ever refined throughout human history. Even so, the depository is second in the United States to the Federal Reserve Bank of New York's underground vault in Manhattan, which holds 7,000 metric tons (7716 tons) of gold bullion (225.1 million oz. troy), some of it in trust for foreign nations, central banks and official international organizations.

Rob

[neufer]

After a short but very heavy downpour there was an intense rainbow over the dale. It came out quite nicely in this photo; thought you might like to see . .

Actually, if you look carefully, it was a double rainbow. There's a fainter one visible too!

Yay!, my first 'official' post as a fully signed-up board member
. . and with a picture too!

• _________________________ Check under the:

[Beyond]

... There is nothing in the Federal Reserve but paper! ...

From the Wikipedia article The United States Bullion Depository, aka "Fort Knox"...

The United States Bullion Depository holds 4,577 metric tons (5046 tons) of gold bullion (147.2 million oz. troy). This is roughly 2.5% of all the gold ever refined throughout human history. Even so, the depository is second in the United States to the Federal Reserve Bank of New York's underground vault in Manhattan, which holds 7,000 metric tons (7716 tons) of gold bullion (225.1 million oz. troy), some of it in trust for foreign nations, central banks and official international organizations.

Rob

I suppose we can all use a little now and then. When i did the post i was thinking of the accounts, which deal in credit only, and thus have only paper-work in them. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Federal_Re ... c_currency(Scroll down to -Federal Funds-) Many years ago, before i had a computer, i went to the library and looked how the Federal Reserve operates, in an old encyclopedia, with very small print. The Federal Reserve board has either expanded it's operations since it was printed, or because the print was so small, i missed about them having the gold reserves. I had to use a magnifying glass to read about how they operated. When i read how they operated, i discovered that it was, to put it politely, a bunch of gooble-de-gook. Now-a-days it's written somewhat differently, and that's where I'll leave it.

[owlice]

It's the Federal Reserve BANK OF NEW YORK which has gold stored in its vault (not the Board). I don't know whether the NY Fed Bank still does tours of the vault, but they used to. I've been in the vault and it is very impressive.

Banks hold all sorts of things for all sorts of people; even I have a safe deposit box in a local bank for various things, including some bonds I've held for years. As the Federal Reserve Banks are banks for the banking industry, it's natural that they would hold things, too, for their clients.