LIGO-Virgo Detect Neutron Star Collision

[Knight of Clear Skies]

So the rumours were accurate, LIGO-Virgo detected a neutron star merger in August with follow-up observations across the spectrum, including a gamma-ray burst picked up by Fermi.

(NGC 4993 in Hydra)

 Not a bad afternoon's work, it confirms the origin of short GRBs and that neutron star collisions are responsible for the bulk of heavy (>iron) element production, via the r-process.

[Fermenter]

I was just coming here to post about this event myself, looks like I was 18 minutes too late.  Here's the NPR article that first notified me to the news.  It's pretty awesome.

http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2017/10/16/557557544/astronomers-strike-gravitational-gold-in-colliding-neutron-stars

 

[ronin]

If I rercall from something and not 100% what, they detected they believe a Black Hole-Neutron star merger some time back. Problem was they were set up for BH-BH mergers and this one (gravity wave) didn't fit the models. So they kind of parked it to one side. Then they updated the system. Sounds like the improved system is therefore a lot better.

Somewhere I had the reference for it and that was how I read about the detection. Suppose the question is therefore where did I get the reference. Think it occurred between the first BH-BH merger they detected that was a bit of a classic and the second. The second was 2 dis-similar masses and gave a less "classic" merger profile. In the middle was this "other" merger" that didn't really fit anything.

With the number we are detecting they seem to be bumping into each other at regular intervals. So much for the "no 2 stars will ever collide" statements that abound. Seem more regular then supernova.

[andrew s]

A real advance in our understanding.  Good science.

Regards Andrew 

[old_eyes]

What I particularly liked was the way the BBC reported "this is the sound the merger made". A sort of chirp with wobble. Exactly what you would expect.