AstroTalk Episode November 2, 2017

Water? Gravitational Waves in Neutron Star Collision

3:00pm - 3:30pm

2 LIGO stations and the Virgo detector detected Gravitational waves, named GW170817, on August 17 2017 from the collision of 2 neutron stars in NGC 4993. Historically, this was the 5th disturbance or detection of G waves, but in this, the 5th instance, other radiation was detected as well. In the first 4 disturbances, only G waves were detected, because light cannot escape a black hole. But in this collision of 2 neutron stars, radio, light, and other types of waves were detected. Another feature of the August 17 event was the length of time that it lasted. The first 4 events lasted for at most, just a few mere seconds, but the 5th event lasted for about 100 seconds, at frequencies climbing to 1000s of cycles per seconds. The neutron stars that collided were 1.1 and 1.6 solar masses. NASA's Fermi Gamma Ray Space Telescope also picked up a flood of gamma rays from the collision just seconds after it happened. Other observatories around the Earth detected the electromagnetic radiation just after the event, as well. A number of observatories were therefore able to jump in and monitor the event, in many different wavelengths. A high level of collaboration allowed scientists to pinpoint the location of the event, which was in NGC 4993. Heavy elements were generated in the event. The 3 big finds in the event were 1. The collision explains the origins of some gamma ray bursts GRB, short bursts
2. The event revealed the occurence of a kilonova
3. The event solved the puzzle of elements that are produced in the R Process,
or Rapid Process. These heavy nuclei were shown to be produced in the
neutron star collision.

The neutron star collision produced some other puzzles as well. The GRBs were relatively faint, and you can listen to the podcast at about 22 minutes to hear why. May the force be with us all as we wait for more G wave events. NGC 4993 is 130 Million light years away, by the way.