Exclusive: We may have detected a new kind of gravitational wave
23 August 2017
Cataclysmic collision
Dana Berry, SkyWorks Digital, Inc./Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics
By Mika McKinnon
Have we detected a new flavour of gravitational wave? Speculation is swelling that researchers have spotted the subtle warping of the fabric of space resulting from the cataclysmic collision of two neutron stars.
Now optical telescopes – including the Hubble space telescope – are scrambling to point their lenses at the source of the possible wave: an elliptical galaxy hundreds of millions of light years away.
Gravitational waves are markers of the most violent events in our universe, generated when dense objects such as black holes or neutron stars crash together with tremendous energy. Two experiments – LIGO in the US and VIRGO in Europe – set out to detect minuscule changes in the path of laser beams caused by passing gravitational waves.
LIGO has discovered three gravitational wave sources to date, all of them colliding black holes. The two observatories have been coordinating data collection since November, increasing their sensitivity. That collaboration may be about to pay off.
More:
https://www.newscientist.com/article/2144937-exclusive-we-may-have-detected-a-new-kind-of-gravitational-wave/?utm_source=NSNS&utm_medium=ILC&utm_campaign=webpush&cmpid=ILC%257CNSNS%257C2016-GLOBAL-webpush-grav-wave2
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I mean "IT" is SO big !!! So big it has no dimension.
What in the world is really-- hundreds of millions of light years? It is just beyond my imagination.
Gives me goose bumps.
Many years ago, I had the great fortune of a few times getting to hang with Carl Sagan at a restaurant in Ithaca, after hours..... I would like to say we had great conversations. But in truth, I just listened.
PS. I just made that photo my desktop background.
A cataclysmic collision of two neutron stars that happened so long ago - and the event can be detected here and now. Just imagine what could be accomplished if all the resources wasted on the military and endless wars were applied instead to scientific research and exploration.
Thank you, Judi Lynn, for posting such a fascinating story!
The electrons have all been collapsed into the nucleus. They were first discovered by Jocelyn Bell Burnell who was cheated out of the Nobel Prize, no doubt because of her gender. They called them LGMs, for little green men because they had a regularly repeated radio signature, caused not by aliens, but by fast rotation of the neutron star.
It's one of those incredible science stories.
Oh! BTW, R&K!
And here is Jocelyn Bell Burnell:
Remember her.
How incredibly wonderful! Now, it's nearly midnight, poor spousal unit asleep for an hour, so I'm bookmarking and setting my phone to alert at around 7 a.m. Thursday just so he can read this.
Super great post, JudiLynn - it'll make for a nice morning that's promising to be cool and rainy!
