Gold's atomic number of 79 makes it one of the higher atomic number elements that occur naturally. Traditionally, gold is thought to have formed by the R-process in supernova nucleosynthesis,but a relatively recent paper suggests that gold and other elements heavier than iron may also be produced in quantity by the collision of neutron stars.
In both cases, satellite spectrometers only indirectly detect the resulting gold: "we have no spectroscopic evidence that elements have truly been produced."
These gold nucleogenesis theories hold that the resulting explosions scattered metal-containing dusts (including heavy elements such as gold) into the region of space in which they later condensed into our solar system and the Earth.
Because the Earth was molten when it was just formed, almost all of the gold present on Earth sank into the core. Most of the gold that is present today in the Earth's crust and mantle is thought to have been delivered to Earth later, by asteroid impacts during the Late Heavy Bombardment.