{"id":9634,"date":"2018-06-14T12:00:57","date_gmt":"2018-06-14T19:00:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/impact\/?p=9634"},"modified":"2018-12-10T11:43:03","modified_gmt":"2018-12-10T19:43:03","slug":"research-shows-short-gamma-ray-bursts-follow-binary-neutron-star-mergers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dev.blogs.oregonstate.edu\/impact\/2018\/06\/research-shows-short-gamma-ray-bursts-follow-binary-neutron-star-mergers\/","title":{"rendered":"Research shows short gamma-ray bursts do follow binary neutron star mergers"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"

Astrophysicist Davide Lazzati<\/p><\/div>\n

Astrophysicist Davide Lazzati <\/a>and his team of theorists have confirmed that last fall\u2019s union of two neutron stars did, in fact, cause a short gamma-ray burst.<\/p>\n

The findings, published June 13, 2018, in Physical Review Letters,<\/em> represent a key step forward in astrophysicists\u2019 understanding of the relationship between binary neutron star mergers, gravitational waves and short gamma-ray bursts.<\/p>\n

Commonly abbreviated as GRBs, gamma-ray bursts are narrow beams of electromagnetic waves of the shortest wavelengths in the electromagnetic spectrum. GRBs are the universe\u2019s most powerful electromagnetic events, occurring billions of light years from Earth and able to release as much energy in a few seconds as the sun will in its lifetime.<\/p>\n

In November 2017, scientists from U.S. and European collaborations announced they had detected an X-ray\/gamma-ray flash that coincided with a blast of gravitational waves, followed by visible light from a new cosmic explosion called a kilonova.<\/p>\n

Gravitational waves, a ripple in the fabric of time-space, were first detected in September 2015, a red-letter event in physics and astronomy that confirmed one of the main predictions of Albert Einstein\u2019s 1915 general theory of relativity.<\/p>\n

Prior to Lazzati\u2019s latest research, however, it had been an open question as to whether the detected electromagnetic waves were \u201ca short gamma-ray burst, or just a short burst of gamma rays\u201d \u2013 the latter being a different, weaker phenomenon.<\/p>\n

In summer 2017, Lazzati\u2019s team of theorists had published a\u00a0paper<\/a>\u00a0predicting that, contrary to earlier estimates by the astrophysics community, short gamma-ray bursts associated with the gravitational emission of binary neutron star coalescence could be observed even if the gamma-ray burst was not pointing directly at Earth.<\/p>\n

\u201cA simultaneous detection of gamma rays and gravitational waves from the same place in the sky was a major milestone in our understanding of the universe,\u201d said Lazzati.\u00a0\u201cThe gamma rays allowed for a precise localization of where the gravitational waves were coming from, and the combined information from gravitational and electromagnetic radiation allows scientists to probe the binary neutron star system that\u2019s responsible in unprecedented ways.\u201d<\/p>\n

Read the full story here.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Astrophysicist Davide Lazzati and team have confirmed that last fall\u2019s union of two neutron stars caused a short gamma-ray 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