Neutron star merger
A neutron star merger is the stellar collision of neutron stars.
When two neutron stars fall into mutual orbit, they gradually
The merger of neutron stars momentarily creates an environment of such extreme neutron flux that the r-process can occur. This reaction accounts for the nucleosynthesis of around half of the isotopes in elements heavier than iron.[2]
The mergers also produce
Observed mergers
On 17 August 2017, the
The co-occurrence of GW170817 with GRB 170817A in both space and time strongly implies that neutron star mergers create short gamma-ray bursts. The subsequent detection of Swope Supernova Survey event 2017a (SSS17a)[12] in the area where GW170817 and GRB 170817A were known to have occurred—and its having the expected characteristics of a kilonova—strongly imply that neutron star mergers are responsible for kilonovae as well.[13]
In February 2018, the
Also in October 2018, scientists presented a new way to use information from gravitational wave events (especially those involving the merger of neutron stars like GW170817) to determine the
In April 2019, the LIGO and Virgo gravitational wave observatories announced the detection of candidate event that is, with a probability 99.94%, the merger of two neutron stars. Despite extensive follow-up observations, no electromagnetic counterpart could be identified.[23][24][25]
In 2023, an observation of the kilonova GRB 230307A was published, including likely observations of the spectra of tellurium and lanthanide elements.[26]
XT2 (magnetar)
In 2019, analysis of data from the Chandra X-ray Observatory revealed another binary neutron star merger at a distance of 6.6 billion light years, an x-ray signal called XT2. The merger produced a magnetar; its emissions could be detected for several hours.[27]
See also
References
- S2CID 4401544.
- ^ Stromberg, Joseph (16 July 2013). "All the Gold in the Universe Could Come from the Collisions of Neutron Stars". Smithsonian. Retrieved 27 April 2014.
- ^ https://www.space.com/james-webb-space-telescope-fresh-gold-cosmos-kilonova-grb
- S2CID 205235329.
- S2CID 217163611.
- ^ Scharping, Nathaniel (18 October 2017). "Gravitational Waves Show How Fast The Universe is Expanding". Astronomy. Retrieved 18 October 2017.
- ^ Cho, Adrian (16 October 2017). "Merging neutron stars generate gravitational waves and a celestial light show". Science. Retrieved 16 October 2017.
- ^ Landau, Elizabeth; Chou, Felicia; Washington, Dewayne; Porter, Molly (16 October 2017). "NASA Missions Catch First Light from a Gravitational-Wave Event". NASA. Retrieved 16 October 2017.
- ^ Overbye, Dennis (16 October 2017). "LIGO Detects Fierce Collision of Neutron Stars for the First Time". The New York Times. Retrieved 16 October 2017.
- ^ Krieger, Lisa M. (16 October 2017). "A Bright Light Seen Across The Universe, Proving Einstein Right - Violent collisions source of our gold, silver". The Mercury News. Retrieved 16 October 2017.
- .
The optical and near-infrared spectra over these few days provided convincing arguments that this transient was unlike any other discovered in extensive optical wide-field surveys over the past decade.
- S2CID 3516168.
- ^ Nature Astronomy (16 Oct 2017) Kilonovae, short gamma-ray bursts & neutron star mergers
- ^ Pease, Roland (2 May 2019). "Gravitational waves hunt now in overdrive". BBC News.
- ^ Eric C. Bellm, Shrinivas R. Kulkarni, Matthew J. Graham, Richard Dekany, Roger M. Smith, Reed Riddle, Frank J. Masci, George Helou, Thomas A. Prince, Scott M. Adams (2018 December 7) The Zwicky Transient Facility: System Overview, Performance, and First Results
- EurekAlert!(Press release). University of Maryland. 16 October 2018. Retrieved 17 October 2018.
- PMID 30327476.
- ^ Mohon, Lee (16 October 2018). "GRB 150101B: A Distant Cousin to GW170817". NASA. Retrieved 17 October 2018.
- ^ Wall, Mike (17 October 2018). "Powerful Cosmic Flash Is Likely Another Neutron-Star Merger". Space.com. Retrieved 17 October 2018.
- ^ Lerner, Louise (22 October 2018). "Gravitational waves could soon provide measure of universe's expansion". Phys.org. Retrieved 22 October 2018.
- S2CID 52987203.
- ^ Charlie Wood (13 Dec 2021) Cosmologists Parry Attacks on the Vaunted Cosmological Principle
- ^ "Breaking: LIGO Detects Gravitational Waves From Another Neutron Star Merger". D-brief. 25 April 2019. Retrieved 13 August 2019.
- ^ "GraceDB |". gracedb.ligo.org. Retrieved 13 August 2019.
- S2CID 146121014.
- ISSN 0028-0836.
- ^ Klesman, Alison (18 April 2019). "A new neutron star merger is caught on X-ray camera". Astronomy. Retrieved 18 April 2019.
External links
- Related videos (as of October 2017[update]):
- AAAS (02:42) on YouTube
- Caltech (03:56) on YouTube
- MIT (00:42) on YouTube
- SciNews (01:46) on YouTube
- AAAS (02:42) on