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    Researchers Enable Detection of Remarkable Gravitational-Wave Signal

    April 9, 2024, Categories  Astronomy/Space

    coalescence and merger of a lower mass-gap black hole with a neutron star
    The coalescence and merger of a lower mass-gap black hole (dark grey surface) with a neutron star with colours ranging from dark blue (60 grams per cubic centimetre) to white (600 kilograms per cubic centimetre) and highlight the strong deformations of the low-density material of the neutron star. Credit: I. Markin (Potsdam University), T. Dietrich (Potsdam University and Max Planck Institute for Gravitational Physics), H. Pfeiffer, A. Buonanno (Max Planck Institute for Gravitational Physics).

    Researchers from the University of Portsmouth’s Institute of Cosmology and Gravitation (ICG) have helped to detect a remarkable gravitational-wave signal, which could hold the key to solving a cosmic mystery.

    The discovery is from the latest set of results announced by the LIGO-Virgo-KAGRA co...

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    Astronomers Discover Heavy Elements after Bright Gamma-Ray Burst from Neutron Star Merger

    March 1, 2024, Categories  Uncategorized

    An artist illustration of a merger of two neutron stars that create heavy elements.
    Illustration courtesy of Luciano Rezzolla, University of Frankfurt, Germany

    Breakthrough discovery puts astronomers one step closer to solving the mystery of the origin of elements that are heavier than iron. An international team of astronomers — including Clemson University astrophysicist Dieter Hartmann — obtained observational evidence for the creation of rare heavy elements in the aftermath of a cataclysmic explosion triggered by the merger of two neutron stars.

    The massive explosion unleashed a gamma-ray burst, GRB230307A, the second brightest in 50 years of observations and about 1,000 times brighter than a typical gamma-ray burst. GRB230307A was first detected by NASA’s Fermi Gamma-Ray Space Telescope on March 7, 2023.

    Using multiple space- and ground-based telescopes, in...

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    Astronomers find Evidence for most Powerful Pulsar in Distant Galaxy

    June 16, 2022, Categories  Astronomy/Space

    Version Without Labels — Top Left: A giant blue star, much more massive than our Sun, has consumed, through nuclear fusion at its center, all its hydrogen, helium, and heavier elements up to iron. It now has a small iron core (red dot) at its center. Unlike the earlier stages of fusion, the fusion of iron atoms absorbs, rather than releases, energy. The fusion-released energy that has held up the star against its own weight now is gone, and the star will quickly collapse, triggering a supernova explosion. Top Right: The collapse has begun, producing a superdense neutron star with a strong magnetic field at its center (inset). The neutron star, though containing about 1.5 times the mass of the Sun, is only about the size of Manhattan...
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    Unusual Neutron Star Spinning every 76 seconds discovered in Stellar Graveyard

    May 31, 2022, Categories  Astronomy/Space

    Artist impression of the 76s pulsar (in magenta) compared to other more rapidly spinning sources. Credit: Danielle Futselaar

    An international team led by a University of Sydney scientist has discovered an unusual radio signal emitting neutron star that rotates extremely slowly, completing one rotation every 76 seconds.

    The star is unique because it resides in the “neutron star graveyard,” where no pulsations are expected. The discovery was made by the MeerTRAP team using the MeerKAT radio telescope in South Africa and is published in Nature Astronomy.

    The star was initially detected from a single pulse. It was then possible to confirm multiple pulses using simultaneous consecutive eight-second-long images of the sky, to confirm its position.

    Neutron stars are extremely dense r...

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