In a First, Pictures Show Gravitational Waves Being Born

[G_j]

Source: National Geographic

The stunning discovery is already helping astronomers resolve a heated debate about the cosmic origins of gold and silver.

By Nadia Drake
10/16/2017


Around 130 million years ago, two dead stars violently collided and set off a sequence of events that, over the last two months, have whipped astronomers on Earth into an absolute frenzy.

At press conferences held across continents, scientists today announced the first detection of gravitational waves created by two neutron stars smashing into each other.

First theorized by Albert Einstein in 1916, gravitational waves are kinks or distortions in the fabric of spacetime caused by extremely violent cosmic events. Until now, all confirmed detections involved a deadly dance between two black holes, which leave no visible signature on the sky.

But with this latest event, teams using about a hundred instruments at roughly 70 observatories were able to track down and watch the cataclysm in multiple wavelengths of light, allowing astronomers to scrutinize the source of these cosmic ripples for the first time.

Read more: https://apple.news/Aq0er_5RnRS-ySs94A-k_qA

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http://news.nationalgeographic.com/2017/10/gravitational-waves-discovered-neutron-stars-pictures-science/

[dalton99a]

1. Working link for non-Apple folks:

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/2017/10/gravitational-waves-discovered-neutron-stars-pictures-science/

[G_j]

2. Thanks!

[Stonepounder]

3. Absolutely fascinating stuff.

Man at his best.

[lagomorph777]

4. Wow, nice!

It's been a long hard road to gravitational wave detection; now it's paying off scientifically.

Interesting to see the theory of metal formation upended!

[Botany]

5. The silver surfer lives

[StarzGuy]

6. What is remarkable

You too can join in the fun using distributive computing. Try Einstein@Home. You will get a cool screen saver to boot!
Colliding Neutron Stars and Density Waves Now Coincide With EM Radiation Detection For The First Time. Hooray! We've been expecting this discovery for some time. I've been using the distributed computing app called Einstein@Home which searches for such collisions in the LIGO data. Kudo's to the collaborative work done to make this discovery a reality.

[Duppers]

7. Great link. Sent it out...

To my favorite particle physicist and to my fav astronomer, both of whom turned into data scientists for jobs. Science is not funded as it once was.