Artist’s impression of merging neutron stars
This artist’s impression shows two tiny but very dense neutron stars at the point at which they merge and explode as a kilonova. Such a very rare event is expected to produce both gravitational waves and a short gamma-ray burst, both of which were observed on 17 August 2017 by LIGO–Virgo and Fermi/INTEGRAL respectively. Subsequent detailed observations with many ESO telescopes confirmed that this object, seen in the galaxy NGC 4993 about 130 million light-years from the Earth, is indeed a kilonova. Such objects are the main source of very heavy chemical elements, such as gold and platinum, in the Universe.
Credit:University of Warwick/Mark Garlick
Over de afbeelding
Id: | eso1733s |
Type: | Ontwerp |
Publicatiedatum: | 16 oktober 2017 16:00 |
Gerelateerde berichten: | eso1733 |
Grootte: | 6152 x 4026 px |
Over het object
Type: | Local Universe : Star : Evolutionary Stage : Neutron Star |
Categorie: | Illustrations |