Science Communication and Outreach
The recent attention on the neutron star merger GW170817 has made many people, who would not otherwise come across astronomy online, curious about space and specifically gravitational waves sources like neutron stars. I love this type of star so what is more fitting than to spread the love. I previously presented you three crazy features in neutron stars, one of them being the accreting nature in binary systems - and these are exactly the systems we will look into here.
These days neutron stars are big in the media, partially because they are such extreme objects. But what exactly is a neutron star - and how do you put something so extreme into perspective? Let's try.
Monday earlier this week the internet exploded with the news from ESO that two neutron stars merged in the galaxy NGC4993 located 130 million light years away. This was measured on August 17 this year and the discovery was therefore named GW170817, which is short for 'Gravitational Wave on August 17, 2017' as measured by LIGO in USA and Virgo in Europe.