Two stars collide and create a kilonova. The event causes waves of energy. The LIGO-Virgo observatory detected a merger of two stars 130 million light-years away. The merger is the only one of its kind in the universe.
Astronomers have been watching the debris cloud for a long time. There is a clearer picture emerging of what happens after the event.
The emergence of a new source of X-rays from the binary neutron star merger is the subject of a paper by a team of researchers. The paper was published in a journal.
Astronomers have trained a whole suite of scientific eyes on the expanding cloud, uncovering more and more detail about these cosmic calamities. Astronomers were able to study the kilonova phenomena because of the merger. TheGW tells researchers about pre-merger activity, and themagnetic observations tell them about the post-merger physical properties.
A cloud of debris and a burst of light are created when two stars collide. The model for neutron star mergers was introduced in 1998. They said that the mergers provide a long-term heat source for the expanding debris envelope. The decay of elements like gold and Platinum in the kilonova creates optical and IR light. The optical and IR light were detected by other telescopes after LIGO and Virgo detected GWs.
The Chandra X-ray Observatory was watching. Chandra didn't see anything at first. Scientists think kilonovae will produce x-rays in high-energy particles. Scientists think there was a jet, but it wasn't pointed at Earth. When the jets hit the surrounding gas and dust, Chandra detected x-rays. The x-ray emissions declined again later in the year.
The x-rays have been stable. Chandra data from December 2020 and January 2021. The x-rays came from the host galaxy.
There are two possible explanations for the steadying of x-ray emissions.
The first explanation is that there is a sonic boom. The material is heated when the cloud of debris hits the gas. The temperature can account for Chandra's afterglow and produce x-rays.
This is depicted by the artist's illustration. The debris in the picture is blue. The shock is shown by the orange and red colors. The blue arcs in the image show where the jets struck, as the jets have faded over time.
The second explanation is not the same as the first one. The merger collapsed into a black hole. Material falling into a black hole can emit x-rays if it is heated enough.
Only one of the two explanations can explain what is happening, according to the researchers behind the new paper. Both sources were producing x-rays in the same place. Scientists have never observed emissions like this before.
The cause of the x-ray afterglow should be determined by further observations. Astronomers will continue to look at GW170817 in both x-rays and radio waves. The radio emissions should increase in the coming months and years if the glow comes from the kilonova. If the glow comes from material falling into a black hole, the x-rays should stay steady or decline rapidly, but there will be no radio emissions over time.
calorimetry of the kilonova's fastest ejecta would be possible if the peak of the afterglow was measured. The merger may have left a remnant black hole. If there is a high-velocity tail in the ejection, it can create excessive x-ray emissions that argue against the collapse of the remnant into a black hole.
On the other hand, that same ejecta could emit a constant source of X-ray emission in the next thousands of days that is not accompanied by bright radio emission. It will show how accretion processes work on a remnant of a BNS merger a few years after it was born.
LIGO opened a new window into the Universe when they detected the first waves. Einstein predicted them in his general theory of relativity a hundred years before their detection. The researchers who played a central role in detecting the GWs received a prize.
Since the first detection, LIGO and Virgo have detected many more black holes. Some theoretical work, including discovering that kilonovae produce heavy elements, has been confirmed by the combination of GW detections and follow-up observations.
The paper confirms theoretical predictions about these events. Astrophysicists said that kilonovae are a significant source of heavy elements. The spectrum and flux evolution of the kilonova emission from GW170817 was in agreement with theoretical predictions, demonstrating that mergers of neutron stars are one of the major sources of heavy elements in our Universe.
Since the 1998 paper, scientists have learned a lot about how the stars work. They can either create a massive star or a black hole. The merger can create a magnetic field that is trillions of times more powerful than the Earth's, and they can make that field in a matter of seconds. Astrophysicists know that they can produce heavy elements like strontium.
Scientists are excited about the future, becauseObservations of GW170817 are mapping an unexplored territory of the BNS.
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