• Question: What happened when the two neuron stars collided?

    Asked by anon-219954 to Nicolas, Laurence, Declan, Bella on 11 Jun 2019.
    • Photo: Declan Jonckers

      Declan Jonckers answered on 11 Jun 2019:

      They created a gravitational wave, which we detected here! I think Laurence might know a bit more about it than me.

    • Photo: Laurence Datrier

      Laurence Datrier answered on 11 Jun 2019:

      A lot of cool stuff!
      Of course they produced gravitational waves – this is what we detected here at LIGO. They also produced a beam of extremely energetic light called a gamma ray burst, and some sort of “explosion” called a kilonova. We think they formed a black hole after they collided.

    • Photo: Bella Boulderstone

      Bella Boulderstone answered on 18 Jun 2019:

      Oh I think Declan and Laurence have covered this one. (Especially Laurence as this is her area!)

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