Uploaded October 2017 | Updated September 2026, 12 hours ago
130 million years ago, two neutron stars collided. The collision was fast and violent, likely spawning a black hole. A shudder — a gravitational wave — was sent out across the fabric of space-time. And as the stars' outer layers launched into space, the force formed a vast cloud of subatomic particles that would cool into many Earths' worth of gold, platinum and uranium. Seconds later, a blast of high-energy gamma-rays – the most energetic kind of light – punched through the erupting cloud. The space-time ripple and the light crossed the cosmos together, and finally arrived at 6:41 a.m. Eastern on Aug. 17, 2017. The gravitational wave first reached Italy's freshly finished detector Advanced Virgo before stretching and squeezing the lasers at America's two LIGO sites. Two seconds later, NASA's gamma-ray detecting Fermi spacecraft caught the blast. In the weeks since, hundreds of astronomers on all seven continents have turned their telescopes and spacecraft to watch the cosmic collision play out in all manner of light – radio, infrared, optical, ultraviolet, X-rays, gamma-rays.
Read the full story here: discovermagazine.com/the-sciences/dawn-of-an-era-astronomers-hear-and-see-cosmic-collision
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130 million years ago, two neutron stars collided. The collision was fast and violent, likely spawning a black hole. A shudder — a gravitational wave — was sent out across the fabric of space-time. And as the stars' outer layers launched into space, the force formed a vast cloud of subatomic particles that would cool into many Earths' worth of gold, platinum and uranium. Seconds later, a blast of high-energy gamma-rays – the most energetic kind of light – punched through the erupting cloud. The space-time ripple and the light crossed the cosmos together, and finally arrived at 6:41 a.m. Eastern on Aug. 17, 2017. The gravitational wave first reached Italy's freshly finished detector Advanced Virgo before stretching and squeezing the lasers at America's two LIGO sites. Two seconds later, NASA's gamma-ray detecting Fermi spacecraft caught the blast. In the weeks since, hundreds of astronomers on all seven continents have turned their telescopes and spacecraft to watch the cosmic collision play out in all manner of light – radio, infrared, optical, ultraviolet, X-rays, gamma-rays.
Read the full story here: discovermagazine.com/the-sciences/dawn-of-an-era-astronomers-hear-and-see-cosmic-collision
—
ABOUT DISCOVER:
Discover is your source for science that matters, makes sense and is a lot of fun, too.
Visit us at: discovermagazine.com
FOLLOW US:
Facebook: facebook.com/DiscoverMag
Twitter: twitter.com/DiscoverMag
Instagram: instagram.com/discover.magazine
SUPPORT US:
Subscribe to Discover: bit.ly/34seAFT
Sign up for our newsletter: discovermagazine.com/newsletter-signup
My Science Shop: myscienceshop.com
STAY CURIOUS!
