ESO’s fleet of telescopes in Chile have detected the first visible counterpart to a gravitational wave source. These historic observations suggest that this unique object is the result of the merger of two neutron stars. The cataclysmic aftermaths of this kind of merger — long-predicted events called kilonovae — disperse heavy elements such as gold and platinum throughout the Universe. This discovery, published in several papers in the journal Nature and elsewhere, also provides the strongest evidence yet that short-duration gamma-ray bursts are caused by mergers of neutron stars.
The release, images and videos are available on:
http://www.eso.org/public/news/eso1733/
Space Scoop - the children's version of this release is available at: http://www.eso.org/public/news/eso1733/kids/
Kind regards,
The ESO Education and Public Outreach Department
16 October 2017
|
16 October 2017: ESO’s telescopes have observed for the first time the visible counterpart to a gravitational wave source. Marking the start of a new era of multi-messenger astronomy, this rare event ...
|
| Read more |
|
16 October 2017: ESO, the world’s most productive ground-based observatory, will open its doors to the public on Saturday 21 October 2017 between 11:00 and 18:00 CEST. The ESO Open ...
|
| Read more |
|
16 October 2017: ESO will hold a press conference on Monday 16 October 2017 at 16:00 CEST, at its Headquarters in Garching, Germany, to present groundbreaking observations of an astronomical phenomenon that ...
|
| Read more |
|
12 October 2017: How can we find out more about the origins of life on Earth? Well, we can leave Earth behind and instead look out into the Universe. The atoms that make ...
|
| Read more |
|
11 October 2017: ESO will hold a press conference on 16 October 2017 at 16:00 CEST, at its Headquarters in Garching, Germany, to present groundbreaking observations of an astronomical phenomenon that has ...
|
| Read more |
|
11 October 2017: The Irish Tánaiste (Deputy Prime Minister) and Minister for Business, Enterprise and Innovation Frances Fitzgerald TD has announced her Government’s commitment to begin the accession process to join ESO ...
|
| Read more |
|
6 October 2017:
The latest edition of ESO's quarterly journal, The Messenger, is now available online. Find out the latest news from ESO on topics ranging from new instruments to the latest ...
|
| Read more |
|
4 October 2017: ESO and an international consortium of institutions [1] have signed an agreement under which the planned BlackGEM array of telescopes will be sited at ESO’s La Silla Observatory in ...
|
| Read more |
|
4 October 2017: The latest issue of the free magazine Science in School is now available online and in printed form. This European journal for science teachers offers up-to-date information on cutting-edge science ...
|
| Read more |
|
Author: Xavier Barcons
13 October 2017: In this instalment of the ESOblog, Director General Xavier Barcons discusses the ESO Member States and how their solid, long-lasting collaboration has driven ESO to become a world-leading astronomy organisation. ...
|
| Read more |
|
Interview with: Felipe de Oliveira Alves
6 October 2017: Star formation is a bit like baking a cake: you need the right ingredients and the right conditions. Finding the right ingredients is easy; nebulae are full of gas and ...
|
| Read more |
|
|
|
|
