✨ Gravitational waves have allowed us to detect extreme astrophysical events. Among these, #GW170817, the collision of two neutron stars observed for the first time both through gravitational waves and electromagnetic radiation, has opened a new window onto the Universe.
Le 17 août 2017 occupe une place spéciale dans la mémoire des astrophysiciens. En cette journée, les caractéristiques d'un événement d'ondes gravitationnelles ( #GW170817) suggèrent la première détection d'une fusion d'étoiles à neutrons.
denis-gilbert.ca/fr/2025/04/1...
#astronomie #Einstein
⏰ 8 years ago today, at this very moment, two neutron stars collided, rippling spacetime & lighting up the sky — we said hello to #GW170817!
This was the first gravitational wave event to be seen & heard.
🌀 Gravitational Waves + 🔭 Light from 💥 gamma rays 🌈 to 📡 radio
#NeutronStars #OnThisDay
"Quasiuniversal" just got quantum gaslit—scalar-tensor gravity rips the mask off GR waveform assumptions. Gravity isn’t broken. It’s just multilingual. 🧬🕳️ #GW170817 #DEFTheory #GlitchTheSky
journals.aps.org/prl...
Hubble Space Telescope image of galaxy NGC 4993 showing the fading optical counterpart (reddish dot, upper left of center) to the gravitational wave event GW170817. This event, likely a kilonova resulting from a neutron star merger, was the first detection of both gravitational waves and electromagnetic waves from the same event, providing crucial insights into the universe's formation of heavy elements and distance scales.
Astronomy Picture from 23/10/2017
NGC 4993: The Galactic Home of an Historic Explosion
Source: https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap171023.html
#NeutronStarMerger #GW170817 #Kilonova #GravitationalWaves #HubbleSpaceTelescope #Astronomy #Astrophysics #Space #GalaxyNGC4993
Short text: A series of spectra from different telescopes and instruments showing the light curves of the kilonova event Long text: A plot that shows wavelength on the x-axis and the spectra of light taken at a variety of days after the event occurred. The different days have different colour curves. The days span from as short as 0.48 days through to 10.5 days. The shorter days have a sharp rise in the spectra, whilst the longer days have a more gradual rise. There are also four insets on the side showing specific features of the spectra lines. Overall, this plot conveys the message that the light curve from the event rapidly evolved in a very short time window.
#GW170817 - the double neutron star merger detected via GWs and an EM signature is the gift that keeps giving!
Using a suite of instruments, this paper outlines the rapid temporal evolution of kilonova spectra post-event from 0.48 - 10.5 days!
paper: www.aanda.org/articles/aa/...
🔭🧪
An infographic describing the gravitational wave event GW170817, but it has been translated into "Glasgow patter" in a humorous way. Binary neutron star merger A LIGO / Virgo gravitational wave detection with associated electromagnetic events observed by over How far? 70 observatories. s& o Pure miles away. Foon it Sittin at coffee tryin tae stay 17/ August 2017/ awake for a day in eh lab ~ T Q Phone starts buzzin like mad wae alert ype emails =" Two wee baws of neutrons Q daein a Spice Girls n becomin gravitational wave signal wan Two wee baws of neutrons, 2 bout eh size fae Glesga tae ‘!l Paisley n bout as heavy as that gamma ray burst Jr big yellow baw in eh sky, hud a A short gamma ray burst is a h— + 2 seconds square go. pure intense beam a gamma N They foon a gamma ray burst. rays like that hing that turne that guy intae eh Hulk. ‘v" GW170817 lets us foon oot wit Didnae hit us but so .zv . . thats sound. eh expansion rate of eh universe is wae gravitational waves. We couldnae dae that before wae it. Noo we no how auld the universe is wae another method that we . didnae huv before this hing. +10 hours 52 minutes We saw a wee dot of light in eh Gravitational waves fae a kilonova sky. Boffin saes it is in a galaxy neutron baw square go lets us This hing that glows after it, called NGC 4993, in the foon oot mare aboot wit they ur is producin gold n platinum constellation of yer maw. made oot ae. Neutrons obvs. Its that we make aw that in eh name. sovereign wae.
It has been, somewhat unbelievably, just over seven years since we detected #GW170817, which was notable for just how many firsts it represented in astronomy:
+ First observed merger of two neutron stars
+ First observation of #GravitationalWaves and light […]
[Original post on mastodon.scot]
Happy birthday to #GW170817 our first @LIGO @ego_virgo multimessenger source!
If you're not sure what all the fuss was about, you can catch up on the science with my blog https://cplberry.com/2018/01/17/gw170817-the-papers/
🎂 Happy birthday #GW170817 our first multimessenger gravitational-wave observation
Relive the excitement of our first @LIGO & @ego_virgo binary neutron star detection
https://cplberry.com/2017/10/16/gw170817/
and all the science that came from this...
Happy birthday to #GW170817 our first observation of a binary neutron star coalescence, and the first time we have ever observed gravitational waves and light from the same source! It's been an exciting 4 years https://cplberry.com/2017/10/16/gw170817/
Exciting paper from @A_Hajela (@NUCIERA) et al showing an X-ray excess in the afterglow of #GW170817 https://arxiv.org/abs/2104.02070
Could be a kilonova afterglow (which may argue against the prompt collapse of the remnant to a black hole) or from accretion onto the merger remnant?
We did a whole lot of science with #GW170817! I explain some (but not all) in my most extensive blog post https://cplberry.com/2018/01/17/gw170817-the-papers/ One day I may finish it and explain ALL the science. I will be practising my evil laugh for that day
The craziness of the discovery of #GW170817 and its multimessenger counterparts is reflected in the deluge of Circulars which were https://gcn.gsfc.nasa.gov/other/G298048.gcn3 It felt like everyone in transient astronomy was involved somehow
#GW170817 was a phenomenal discovery: our 1st binary neutron star coalescence AND our 1st detection with multimessenger counterparts. Not only were there gravitational waves from this source, but a gamma-ray burst, kilonova and radio/X-ray afterglow...
Three years ago my phone buzzed with a notification of a new gravitational wave candidate. August had been a busy month, so my first thought was "What fresh hell is this?" It turns out things were about to get a *lot* busier #GW170817
2.5 years later and we're still observing the counterpart to #GW170817!
New @chandraxray observations by @A_Hajela et al. Could we be starting to see the transition from the jet afterglow to the kilonova afterglow?
https://gcn.gsfc.nasa.gov/gcn3/27357.gcn3
Over 2 years since #GW170817 and observations are still being made! @chandraxray X-ray observations of the afterglow (looking good for an off-axis jet model) by @A_Hajela et al https://gcn.gsfc.nasa.gov/gcn3/25631.gcn3
🎂 Happy birthday to #GW170817 our first gravitational wave observations of a binary neutron star! 🎂
https://cplberry.com/2017/10/16/gw170817/
#GW170817 is one of my favourite chirps
Rating: 🐦🐦🎶🧁🥇🎉
Ed shows how we keep improving our analyses. Left is initial quick analysis of tidal deformation from #GW170817. Middle uses more low frequency data, a variety of waveforms and fixes the sky position. Right assumed both neutron stars share an equation of state #GR22Amaldi13
Philippe Landry discusses using constraints on the neutron star equation of state from #GW170817 to infer the neutron star moment of inertia. Can infer spin of the double pulsar's pulsar A to be ~0.02 https://arxiv.org/abs/1807.04727 #MWRM18
Milton Ruiz of @PhysicsIllinois on how observations of #GW170817 can let us set an upper bound on the mass of neutron stars. For cold, nonrotating neutron stars, the maximum mass is 2.16 − 2.28 solar masses https://arxiv.org/abs/1711.00473 #MWRM18
1 year ago @CarnegieAstro discovered the optical counterpart to #GW170817 by targetting galaxies to observe. In https://arxiv.org/abs/1801.08009 we investigated the localization potential of @LIGO–@ego_virgo and the implications for #MultimessengerAstronomy. Blog:...
Looking back a year to the detection of #GW170817 https://cplberry.com/2017/10/16/gw170817/
My first thoughts were “What fresh hell is this?” We've certainly been busy! #GravitationalWaves
Coordinating efforts, and getting analyses to work (especially in low latency so that we can promptly warn astronomers as with #GW170817), is a big task. There's a lot of management that needs to be done! 3/9
For an informal overview of the #GW170817 papers, I've updated my blog with the new results https://cplberry.com/2018/01/17/gw170817-the-papers/ #scicomm
Two new @LIGO–@ego_virgo papers on #GW170817
💫 https://dir.lat/x3teMh is an updated analysis of the source properties (masses, location, tidal deformation)
📏 https://dir.lat/1sllmS looks at measuring the neutron star radius and equation of state
#GravitationalWaves
The last of the (first batch of) @LIGO–@ego_virgo #GW170817 papers has now been published, and my blog is up-to-date with the latest results https://cplberry.com/2018/01/17/gw170817-the-papers/ #GravityAndLight https://twitter.com/cplberry/status/953619028970524673
3 months after the first papers, I've finally put together a blog post about the #GW170817 results https://cplberry.com/2018/01/17/gw170817-the-papers/ #GravityAndLight
New @LIGO/@ego_virgo #GW170817 paper on the search for a postmerger signal https://arxiv.org/abs/1710.09320 #nondetection
