When It Rains, It Rains Platinum From Heaven

According to James Brenan of the department of geology at the University of Toronto (quoted in Science Daily), the platinum in your wedding ring is not of this Earth.

That's because "the extreme temperature at which the Earth's core formed more than four billion years ago would have completely stripped any precious metals from the rocky crust and deposited them in the core." In other words, miners would have to dig to the center of the planet to mine any platinum, rhodium or certain other precious metals.

So where did the platinum that lies just beneath the Earth's surface come from?

You guessed it: it's extraterrestrial.

The assumption is that the metals with which we're familiar actually rained down from the sky as "extraterrestrial debris," moving through the solar system in comets and meteorites.

Researchers seem to like the idea of an "extraterrestrial rain" -- and not just because it's such a terrific image.

According to Dr. Brenan, "The notion of extraterrestrial rain may also explain another mystery, which is how the rock portion of the Earth came to have hydrogen, carbon and phosphorous -- the essential components for life, which were likely lost during Earth's violent beginning."

Photo courtesy of NASA Johnson Space Center (NASA-JSC)