![]() ![]() ![]() Astronomers studied the kilonova with telescopes across the electromagnetic spectrum, from gamma rays to radio light. The electromagnetic emissions from GW170817 came from a “kilonova”: a burst of high-energy light produced from nuclear reactions when the neutron stars merged. The study found the radius of a 1.4-solar-mass neutron star is between 10.4 and 11.9 kilometers, a substantial improvement over other estimates. “It's a fun field to be involved with at the moment!” A neutron-star state of mindĪ study published earlier this year combined gravitational-wave observations of the colliding double-neutron-star system GW170817 (detected on August 17, 2017) with electromagnetic observations and nuclear physics. “You're seeing this beautiful coming-together of gravitational-wave observations and electromagnetic observations, often with very different techniques,” says Anna Watts, a neutron-star astrophysicist at the University of Amsterdam who is involved with NICER. As a result, despite the relatively wide range of possible radius values (comparable to a person saying they are between 4 and 8 feet tall), every measurement and every reasonable theory of neutron star structure gives a size estimate within that range.īut can astrophysicists do better? They would say so, because they have help: The gravitational-wave observatories LIGO and Virgo, as well as the Neutron star Interior Composition Explorer (NICER), an X-ray observatory aboard the International Space Station dedicated to studying the structure of neutron stars. Current research combines multiple types of electromagnetic (light-based) observations with lab work and theoretical models. However, astrophysicists are very good at indirect measurements. ![]() The sun, by contrast, has a radius of about 696 thousand kilometers.Įven ordinary stars are too small to be anything other than points of light in our most powerful telescopes, so direct measurement of the size of neutron stars is a hopeless case. We know they are comparatively tiny: Researchers estimate that a neutron star with a mass 1.4 times that of the sun will have a radius between 8 and 16 kilometers. Artwork by Sandbox Studio, Chicago with Ana Kova ![]()
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