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A research team led by astronomers from the University of Warwick had to wait over 100 days to see the first of the star neutrons to merge to reform behind the sun's glare.
They were rewarded by the first confirmed visual observation of a stream of material that continued to emerge from the fused star exactly 110 days after the initial cataclysmic fusion event was observed for the first time. Their observations confirm a key prediction of the consequences of neutron star mergers
The fusion of GW170817 binary neutron stars occurred at 130 million light-years in a galaxy named NGC 4993. It was detected in August 2017 by the advanced laser interferometer. Observatory (Adv-LIGO) and Gamma Ray Burst (GRB) observations, then became the first fusion of neutron stars to be observed and confirmed by visual astronomy.
After a few weeks, the fused star then passed behind the glare of our sun leaving it effectively hidden from the astronomers until it disappeared from this glare 100 days later the melting event. It was at this point that the research team of the University of Warwick was able to use the Hubble Space Telescope to see that the star was still producing a powerful beam of light in a direction that , although distant from Earth, was beginning to spread
The lead author of the paper, Dr. Joe Lyman from the Department of Physics at the University of Warwick, said:
"At first, we saw visible light fed by the radioactive decay of heavy elements, about a hundred days later and that disappeared, but now we see a stream of material, ejected at an angle from us, but at almost the speed of light.This is quite different than some people have suggested, that the material would not come out in a jet, but in all directions. "
Professor Andrew Levan of the Department of Physics from the University of Warwick, another of the main authors of documents added:
"If we had looked straight down this beam we would have seen a really powerful explosion of gamma rays, which means q It is likely that every fusion neutron star actually creates an explosion gamma rays, but we only see a small fraction of them because the jet does not align so often. Gravitational waves are a whole new way to find this kind of event, and they might be more common than we think. "
These observations confirm the prediction made by the second author of the paper, Dr. Gavin Lamb of the University of Leicester, Department of Physics and Astronomy, said that these types of events will reveal the structure of these jets of materials traveling near the speed of light:
"The light behavior of these jets, how it illuminates and disappears, can be used to determine the speed of the material throughout the jet . As the reverb shines, we look deeper into the jet structure and probe the faster components. This will help us understand how these streams of matter, traveling near the speed of light, are formed and how they are accelerated at these phenomenal speeds. "
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Materials Provided by University of Warwick . Note: Content may be subject to change in style and length.
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