A neutron-star merger is detected in gravitational waves and light
The LIGO and Virgo detectors recorded the inspiral of two neutron stars; about eleven hours later an optical counterpart, AT2017gfo, was found in the galaxy NGC 4993 at roughly 40 megaparsecs. The transient faded and reddened over days in the manner predicted for material heated by the radioactive decay of freshly made r-process nuclei, with inferred ejecta of a few hundredths of a solar mass. It established neutron-star mergers as a site of heavy-element synthesis and is the founding event of multi-messenger astronomy.
Observed — measured or witnessed, with the observation cited.
Subjects
- Kilonova · phenomenon · not located
- Rapid neutron capture (the r-process) · phenomenon · not located
- Neutron star · celestial body · Galactic · not located
- Stellar nucleosynthesis · phenomenon · not located
Evidence
Partly verified — Core facts are sourced; some optional detail is deliberately absent.
GW170817: Observation of Gravitational Waves from a Binary Neutron Star Inspiral
Establishes the 17 August 2017 binary neutron-star merger and the associated kilonova AT2017gfo in NGC 4993 at roughly 40 Mpc as a site of r-process nucleosynthesis. Volume and page numbers are deliberately not asserted because they were not confirmed. Ejecta mass estimates of 0.03-0.06 solar masses come from modelling papers summarised via search, not from this paper.
Physical Review Letters (LIGO Scientific Collaboration and Virgo Collaboration) · 2017 · Partly verified
LIGO Scientific and Virgo Collaborations, Physical Review Letters (2017), with the companion multi-messenger paper in The Astrophysical Journal Letters (2017)
Recorded on Kilonova
- Baade and Zwicky propose supernovae and neutron stars
- B2FH sets out the synthesis of the elements in stars
- A regularly pulsing radio source is identified
- A pulsar is found inside the Crab Nebula
- SN 1987A: neutrinos from a collapsing core reach Earth
- A neutron-star merger is detected in gravitational waves and light
- A radius is measured for the heaviest known neutron star
- JWST finds the compact object in SN 1987A
Related
Related because they share a subject in the Atlas — never because the text looks similar.
- JWST finds the compact object in SN 1987A · 2024-02-22
- A radius is measured for the heaviest known neutron star · 2021
- SN 1987A: neutrinos from a collapsing core reach Earth · 1987-02-23 ~07:35 UT (neutrinos); optical discovery 1987-02-24
- A pulsar is found inside the Crab Nebula · 1968
- A regularly pulsing radio source is identified · 1967-11-28
- B2FH sets out the synthesis of the elements in stars · 1957
- Baade and Zwicky propose supernovae and neutron stars · 1934