Detection of Gravitational Waves From Neutron-Star Marks New Era of Astronomy

The First detection of gravitational waves from a Neutron Star marked a new era in Astronomy. These stars are the collapsed remains of massive stars that died producing supernova events, the explosions produce some of the most exotic objects known to our universe. After many decades of searching, scientists have spotted gravitational waves and light being emitted from two super dense stellar corpses known as neutron stars, as they merged together in space time. Albert Einstein first predicted the existence of gravitational waves as part of his general theory of relativity published in 1916. Many dedicated scientists have been searching to prove that Gravitational Waves exist
 since Einstein predicted the possibility many years ago.

These new gravitational waves are ripples found in the fabric of space time radiated by energy conversions in space, 
this implies that space and energy may beconnected in ways we have not fully comprehended. These ripples move at the speed of light but are much more penetrating, Gravitational Waves do not scatter and cannot be absorbed as we have observed of light-waves.

After a century of searching astronomers proved the theory
of gravitational waves when LIGO detected the waves being emitted by two large merging blackholes. This initial find won the 2017 Nobel prize for three physicists and the LIGO team followed shortly with more discoveries linked to colliding black holes. The next detection was announced on October 16th 2017 at news conferences worldwide as LIGO's two detectors picked up a signal lasting 100 seconds longer than any previously recorded events cause by black holes. Immediately scientists concluded the event was caused by colliding neutron stars.

The mass of the colliding neutron stars was estimated to lie between 1.1 and 1.6 the mass of our sun. According to theoretical astrophysicists a Neutron Star is the closet physical object to a blackhole. In fact the collision of two neutron stars can cause a black hole to appear. Just one teaspoon of a Neutron Star weighs as much as all of the people on earth!

Neutron Star


This discovery shows much promise continue these studies so that we may learn more about the universe we live in. Observations of the glowing light from the event revealed
heavy elements such as gold and uranium, which were produced when the two neutron stars collided. Scientists now have solid evidence that colliding neutron stars produce much of the universe's gold, platinum and other heavy elements. Scientists have previously known that the lightest elements like hydrogen and helium were produced around the time of the bid bang and that stars produce many of our heavier elements. It has not been well understood how many of the heaviest elements form like diamonds, gold or platinum. An event like this would likely produce about 10 Earth masses of gold and uranium.

Near Pisa Italy the Virgo gravitational wave detector also picked up a signal from the same event and NASA's Fermi Gamma Ray Space Telescope was able to pick up Gamma Rays from the event. A Gamma Ray is the highest and most energetic form of light-wave in the
electromagnetic spectrum. All of the detections matched in origination with the neutron collision positioned approximately 130 million light years from earth. This was followed up with visual telescopes on earth to confirm a very bright blue source of light in a nearby galaxy, this records the first ever time a neutron merger has been observed.

Additionally, researchers at the Gemini South telescope in Chile spotted that same source in infrared light spectrum. The event was recorded on many instruments showing many sources across the electromagnetic spectrum, from radio to X-ray wavelengths. Perhaps one of the most interesting extrapolations from this event is that gamma rya bursts were detected just 2 seconds behind the gravitational waves, showing that gravitational waves move at the speed of light! These measurements can help us calculate the rate of universal expansion, estimates of this are previously known as the Hubble Constant.