Astronomers to describe phenomenon "never witnessed before"

a reply to: Illumimasontruth

It would depend on the combined mass but most likely yes it would be a black hole.

originally posted by: TrueBrit
a reply to: LadyGreenEyes

Again, it is not going to be something mundane like an asteroid, of any kind, headed Earthward or not. Asteroids, do not have enough mass that a gravitation wave observatory would even be able to measure their presence, as far as I understand it!

Does seem unlikely! Do we have any updates on this? Haven't checked in days.

a reply to: LadyGreenEyes

Yes we do.

It was a binary neutron star collision, which was not only detected via the application of gravitational wave detectors, but also imaged by a huge array of telescopes of varying types.

Because neutron stars are not like unto black holes, in that they emit visible light, the event was able to be imaged directly, as well as with the gravitational wave system, so not only is this the first collision of its sort to be recorded with the gravitational wave system, but also the first gravitational wave detection to be co-witnessed with more standard methods of viewing phenomenon in deep space!

A quote from tonight's "Gogglebox" a programme that features people watching TV and commenting on it. Yes I know however, this is the "real world". This was in response to an item about the collision of two neutron stars...

“Two stars collided 130 million years ago” “So why are they bringing it up now then?”

a reply to: FireMoon

If I spoke Yiddish I might say something like "oy vey."

originally posted by: TrueBrit
a reply to: LadyGreenEyes

Yes we do.

It was a binary neutron star collision, which was not only detected via the application of gravitational wave detectors, but also imaged by a huge array of telescopes of varying types.

Because neutron stars are not like unto black holes, in that they emit visible light, the event was able to be imaged directly, as well as with the gravitational wave system, so not only is this the first collision of its sort to be recorded with the gravitational wave system, but also the first gravitational wave detection to be co-witnessed with more standard methods of viewing phenomenon in deep space!

Alright, then, that is very cool! Appreciate the update! That had to be something to see.Much or exciting than I expected!

a reply to: LadyGreenEyes

It was a fascinating discovery, from which the scientific community learned much, and which has advanced our understanding of certain aspects of how our world and its components came to be. By studying the light which emitted from the collision, they are now absolutely sure that the heavier elements which exist in our world and the wider universe, are created in neutron star collisions, something which was heavily suspected, but has now been all but confirmed by their observations. That is just one of the areas of astrophysics which has had a shot in the arm as a result of this observation.

Scientists are gobbling up the results of this observation like starving people at a medieval banquet, because it has so many wider implications, so many tidbits of interest across such a broad spectrum of study areas. Fascinating and amazing stuff. I highly recommend watching any videos you can, featuring the post observation conference/announcement, because the people who made the observations are far better at communicating the depth of their discovery, than I am, and they have graphs and graphics to help demonstrate their meaning!

originally posted by: TrueBrit
a reply to: LadyGreenEyes

It was a fascinating discovery, from which the scientific community learned much, and which has advanced our understanding of certain aspects of how our world and its components came to be. By studying the light which emitted from the collision, they are now absolutely sure that the heavier elements which exist in our world and the wider universe, are created in neutron star collisions, something which was heavily suspected, but has now been all but confirmed by their observations. That is just one of the areas of astrophysics which has had a shot in the arm as a result of this observation.

Scientists are gobbling up the results of this observation like starving people at a medieval banquet, because it has so many wider implications, so many tidbits of interest across such a broad spectrum of study areas. Fascinating and amazing stuff. I highly recommend watching any videos you can, featuring the post observation conference/announcement, because the people who made the observations are far better at communicating the depth of their discovery, than I am, and they have graphs and graphics to help demonstrate their meaning!

I will have to find some time to do just that. This truly is something remarkable, and worthy of being announced as it was! Seems likely that they will have many years of analysis of all of the data, to glean from it all that they can. Such a rare thing. Just the spectacle alone would have had to be something! My dad would have loved this story; he was something of an amateur stargazer, and loved all the science behind such things.

a reply to: JimOberg


By now we all know it was a neutron star merger viewed across the spectrum with almost every single telescope available to mankind. It even got the discovery of the year for 2017.

Then it went behind the sun. Gave time for more papers to come out.

Now, they are saying this about the neutron star merger...

The spectacular merger of two neutron stars that generated gravitational waves announced last fall likely did something else: birthed a black hole. This newly spawned black hole would be the lowest mass black hole ever found.

A Chandra observation two to three days after the event failed to detect a source, but subsequent observations 9, 15 and 16 days after the event, resulted in detections. The source went behind the Sun soon after, but further brightening was seen in Chandra observations about 110 days after the event, followed by comparable X-ray intensity after about 160 days.

By comparing the Chandra observations with those by the NSF's Karl G. Jansky Very Large Array (VLA), Pooley and collaborators explain the observed X-ray emission as being due entirely to the shock wave—akin to a sonic boom from a supersonic plane—from the merger smashing into surrounding gas. There is no sign of X-rays resulting from a neutron star.

phys.org, May 31, 2018 - Gravitational wave event likely signaled creation of a black hole.

The bummer will be having to wait 2 or 3 years and check again that there are no tell-tale signs of super heavy neutron star emitting X-rays.