Call it a gift. Late in the Solar System's formation, a shower of objects up to the size of Pluto delivered to Earth a large quantity of rock containing gold, platinum and other elements that bind readily with iron. Researchers believe these elements were added to the mantle late in Earth's development, because if they had been present when the planet was molten, they would have sunk to its core, with iron.
William Bottke of the Southwest Research Institute in Boulder, Colorado and his colleagues used abundances of iron-loving elements on Earth, the Moon and Mars to model how later impacts from large objects could have replenished reserves in the planets' mantles. The findings may also explain the sizes of the oldest craters on the Moon and Mars.
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Planetary science: Impacts sent bling to early Earth. Nature 468, 871 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1038/468871e
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/468871e
