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Two Stars Collided And Solved Half of Astronomy's Problems. Now What? (fivethirtyeight.com)
"It's hard to overstate the enormous leap forward that astronomy took on August 17, 2017," reports an article shared by schwit1:
On that day, astronomers bore witness to the titanic collision of two neutron stars, the densest things in the universe besides black holes. In the collision's wake, astronomers answered multiple major questions that have dominated their field for a generation. They solved the origin of gamma-ray bursts, mysterious jets of hardcore radiation that could potentially roast Earth. They glimpsed the forging of heavy metals, like gold and platinum. They measured the rate at which the expansion of the universe is accelerating. They caught light at the same time as gravitational waves, confirmation that waves move at the speed of light. And there was more, and there is much more yet to come from this discovery... "Now it's a question of, do we have the right instrumentation for doing all the follow-up work?" said Edo Berger, an astronomer at Harvard who studies explosive cosmic events. "Do we have the right telescopes? What's going to happen when we have not just one event, but one a month, or one a week -- how do we deal with that flood...?"
The August 17 gravitational wave gave astronomers a glimpse at an entirely different universe. For most of history, they've studied stars and galaxies, which seem static and unchanging from the vantage point of human timescales... But GW170817 revealed a universe alive, pulsating with creation and destruction on human timescales... [T]he event itself unfolded in less than three human-designated weeks. This faster timescale is "pushing the way astronomy is done," Berger said... In space, the Fermi space telescope glimpsed a burst of gamma radiation. Within an hour, astronomers made six independent discoveries of a bright, fast-fading flash: A new phenomenon called a kilonova... Nine days later, X-rays streamed in, and after 16 days, radio waves arrived, too. Each type of information tells astronomers something different. Richard O'Shaughnessy, an astronomer at the Rochester Institute of Technology, describes the discovery as a "Rosetta stone for astronomy."
"What this has done is provide one event that unites all these different threads of astronomy at once," he said. "Like, all our dreams have come true, and they came true now..." Thanks to the August 17 event, astronomers now know what to look for. Soon, they will be able to sift through an embarrassment of neutron-star mergers and other phenomena... And they are talking about how to turn their eyes to the sky, at a moment's notice, the next time the universe throws something big their way. "It's a wonderful time, it's a terrifying time," O'Shaughnessy said. "I can't really capture the wonder and the horror and glee and happiness."
The August 17 gravitational wave gave astronomers a glimpse at an entirely different universe. For most of history, they've studied stars and galaxies, which seem static and unchanging from the vantage point of human timescales... But GW170817 revealed a universe alive, pulsating with creation and destruction on human timescales... [T]he event itself unfolded in less than three human-designated weeks. This faster timescale is "pushing the way astronomy is done," Berger said... In space, the Fermi space telescope glimpsed a burst of gamma radiation. Within an hour, astronomers made six independent discoveries of a bright, fast-fading flash: A new phenomenon called a kilonova... Nine days later, X-rays streamed in, and after 16 days, radio waves arrived, too. Each type of information tells astronomers something different. Richard O'Shaughnessy, an astronomer at the Rochester Institute of Technology, describes the discovery as a "Rosetta stone for astronomy."
"What this has done is provide one event that unites all these different threads of astronomy at once," he said. "Like, all our dreams have come true, and they came true now..." Thanks to the August 17 event, astronomers now know what to look for. Soon, they will be able to sift through an embarrassment of neutron-star mergers and other phenomena... And they are talking about how to turn their eyes to the sky, at a moment's notice, the next time the universe throws something big their way. "It's a wonderful time, it's a terrifying time," O'Shaughnessy said. "I can't really capture the wonder and the horror and glee and happiness."
well a couple years old. but that's old in gravity
the densest things in the universe besides black holes.
People get immune to click-bait hype. Say "the second densest things in the universe" instead.
"I don't know, therefore Aliens" Wafflebox1
Then why are you wasting time reading and responding to this article? Put down the keyboard, go forth and do good.
You forgot BeauHD and msmash
What good do you do?
Slashdot called to say that I was PROBABLY going to be named “Faggot of the Year,” like last year, but I would have to agree to an interview and a major photo shoot. I said probably is no good and took a pass. Thanks anyway!
You are welcome on my lawn.
That dude asked: > do we have the right instrumentation for doing all the follow-up work?
But what kind of *Right Instrumentation* does he really mean?
More of the same ol instrumentation, like more telescopes (which that dude uttered)?
Or more new types of instrumentation that can carry out even more exciting measurement / probe, yielding yuuuggely rewarding scientific insights to further our knowledge about the Universe we are living in?
If the answer is the latter, then what kind of new instruments must we invent in order to capture the new insights we so desperately look for?
Everyone is going to die at some point, none of this matters.
Sounds like someone hasn't procreated yet
Your'e all thinking it, I just said it for you
One of the great results of this flood of unified information, is that it seems like it may help a lot in analyzing previously collected data - either looking for particular events or knowing how to filter out some cosmic noise that may be obscuring other things.
The most exciting thing long term to me, is a better ability to determine in the end what might be the most appealing interstellar targets to send manned or unmanned craft to explore. I'll be long gone but it's nice to think about.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
Any place or time in history where science was actively discouraged or forbidden, the people have lived miserable lives. Coincidence?
My kids are aware that everyone dies and none of this matters.
With an attitude like that, how do you find the energy to get out of bed and post?
According to the summary, it sounds like astronomy just got much more efficient and less wasteful. I do agree that every so often now people, especially adults with their basic education long behind them, need a remainder how observing the sky and the human survival are related to each other, all the way from the stone age to the early agricultural societies and the present.
Answer:
Now I will make a ham sandwich.
THanks for askING.
You're right. Let's just sit around not learning anything about the universe which created us and is completely integral to our existence. Staying ignorant and uneducated is the way to go!
better lead to more accurate horoscopes.
plenty more people where they came from. nobody's going to miss a billion or two if they starve.
Please don't.
and instead we're building telescopes to watch past things.
Your comment is a past thing, too.
Ezekiel 23:20
> "It's a wonderful time, it's a terrifying time," O'Shaughnessy said. "I can't really capture the wonder and the horror and glee and happiness."
Now this hardly sounds like rational, balanced, critical, cold thinking science needs.
In the collision's wake, astronomers answered multiple major questions that have dominated their field for a generation
So the scientists have "solved" half of their research questions.
If I was an astrophysicist I would be rather worried about my future job prospects at that announcement. Though I would be more concerned with the sloppy science behind doing a single experiment and assuming that every next time it repeats, the results will be the same.
I would be fervently hoping that the next time there is a neutron star collision, the data that comes in is very, very, different. Thus showing that all this conjecture means we don't really understand those "major questions", after all. Predictable science is so very dull.
politicians are like babies' nappies: they should both be changed regularly and for the same reasons
There are people on this planet that need help to survive, and instead we're building telescopes to watch past things. Pointless and wasteful.
All basic research seems pointless until, suddenly, a need arises for it.
If ne of those telescopes were to spot an asteroid impacting us in one hundred years, we would be motivated to develop the ability to deflect it.
Or taken their meds. Life is their to enjoy, physics is fun, gp needs to relax.
The usual result of questions being answered in science is the discovery of new questions,
Thus Isac Newton could say he accomplished much because he stood on the sholders of giants,
âoe [T]he event itself unfolded in less than three human-designated weeks.â
Unless another species has defined weeks (and in a conflicting manner), I donâ(TM)t think we really need to specify that the weeks were human-designated.
Cthulhu out.
https://www.eff.org/https-everywhere
I think you mean Nate Plastic, or perhaps Nate Vacuum would be a bit more astronomy-themed.
More than a little emo shit like you will ever do.
Be careful, junior. You might cut yourself with all of that edge.
then you will want to die ; )
love is just extroverted narcissism
I can tell from this post that you wouldn't be an astronomer, so you can rest in peace on that front.
Slow dissolve.
Imagine, if you will, writing those exact thoughts back in 1968. (And why not?—your objections are perfectly generic.)
SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory — 2016
Nobel prize hat trick, if you're more excited by the prize of the thing, than the thing itself.
No, you would not have been a member of the group making these exciting discoveries. Your remark would have been reported as "overheard conversation between unnamed senator and unnamed senator's junior intern and errand boy".
If—instead—you were astrophysics material, you would not be recycling your furnerial, knuckle-chewing Higg's boson epitaph (from the dark end of the standard-model tunnel) at the giddy outset of SLAC 2.0.
lay off the rick and morty my man, it's messing with you're brain.
He actually said 66% or so, I don't know where you're getting 98%.
Wow, sent an e-mail as suggested when clicking on "use classic" banner, and got a fast response that addressed my msg
Comment removed based on user account deletion
Indeed.
Just mention that she believes in killing babies (âoeabortionâ) and watch her try to defend herself. She actually implied that if there was not a birth certificate (papers please), there was not a life.
Procreated? I haven't even had my morning coffee, yet. Baby steps.
Maybe this is the dawning of the Age of Aquarius!
No. It apears to be, judging by political events, the dawning of the age of Dunning-Kruger.
... two neutron stars, the densest things in the universe besides black holes.
It must have been something you assimilated. . . .
Some of those people were hired to build that telescope. Others will be hired to maintain it. Still others will be hired to work at the fast food those first people stop at occasionally. That is where you come into this picture.
I know the youngsters will find this astounding... remember when the solar system had nine planets?
You westerners, wow. I am in very much awe of your expressive language! You have big brains! Our brains so small but your brains so big! In Japan, such sentiment would be simply stated as, "Faggot desu!"
I'll be with your wife in the meantime, both when you're here and when you're long gone. I'll make her see stars you never could.
Gravity can't explain the movement of the heavens, so they have to claim there is unseen dark matter holding it together, and dark energy keeping it moving apart.
Maybe there is no dark matter, no dark energy, and gravity isn't what we're told. Maybe gyroscopes don't show any spin of Earth.
Space is fake. The Earth is flat. The eclipses prove it.
Solar Eclipse: https://vimeo.com/230976895
Corona lines can be observed to move faster than the speed of light. Light of the corona can be observed on the back of the moon. Light of the chromosphere can be observed on the back of the moon. Light of protuberences can be observed on the back of the moon.
Lunar Eclipse: https://vimeo.com/92378881
Shadow is black, then changes color to reddish: Shadows don't change color. Moon glow of uneclipsed portion increases as shadow becomes reddish, detail lost.
Next lunar eclipse: January 30/31, 2018 North America
Hopefully none of the people working on this were wearing the wrong type of shirts.
It could also mean somebody got sloppy with their fakin'. This is no moon landing, you know.
Looks like you post on N4G so I guess I will continue to mark you as "Inappropriate" or would you like "Spam" next time?
Both ears and the tail for that one.
Fake Space stories are often run by no-credibility operations because they can't be independently verified.
>If ne of those telescopes were to spot an asteroid impacting us in one hundred years, we would be motivated to develop the ability to deflect it.
Any attempt at deflecting the asteroid would probably be stopped by religious fanatics, anti-scientists, and social justice warriors.
In a word, "no".
Within the event horizon, there is literally no path 'outside'. It isn't that getting there involves an infinite redshift: it's that there is literally no geodesic leading out. Within the event horizon space twists in on itself such that all directions lead deeper inwards towards the singularity.
You have tremendous freedom to move about in time, but your freedom to move about in space gets sharply curtailed. It's exactly the reverse of the spacetime situation outside the event horizon, where we have tremendous freedom to move in space but are only allowed to move forwards into the future.
You're an idiot or a troll.
I remember there was some talk of gravity waves being a FTL phenomenon, which could potentially allow for FTL communication...so much for that.
"When information is power, privacy is freedom" - Jah-Wren Ryel
That's something that only Pinky would say.
FTFY.
Actually, I'm not sure about the black holes.
At the bottom of the
Your public education that we all paid for was pointless and wasteful.
...URANUS!!!!
Or at the surface of a four-dimensional blackhole, as to some theory posted on Slashdot earlier:
https://science.slashdot.org/s...
>If ne of those telescopes were to spot an asteroid impacting us in one hundred years, we would be motivated to develop the ability to deflect it.
Any attempt at deflecting the asteroid would probably be stopped by religious fanatics, anti-scientists, and social justice warriors.
but given those circumstances, nobody would mind if we took the Chinese approach of just driving tanks through their protest barricades.
Just look who's in first place now, haters.
And I want to thank first and foremost my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, the members of the Academy and my mom, who always told me I could accomplish anything I set my mind to.
You are welcome on my lawn.
There are people on this planet that need help to survive
Yes, and we should be doing more to thelp them.
instead we're building telescopes to watch past things.
No, we are, and should be, doing that, too.
Pointless and wasteful.
You have no grasp of what science has given, is giving, and may give us.
It is fortunate, for the whole world including those who suffer, that you are in no position to make decisions in these matters.
I suggest that if you can help, that you do so. Simple.
N4G? What's that? Niggers 4 Gays?
The only thing you've pulled out of is every optional social situation in your life, ever.
I do not want your cheap brainburning drugs. They are useless for work. And I am a working man today.
There are people on this planet that need help to survive, and instead we're building telescopes to watch past things. Pointless and wasteful.
Funny how dickheads like you get annoyed about telescopes but give aircraft carriers a free pass. Stupid cunt.
I do not want your cheap brainburning drugs. They are useless for work. And I am a working man today.
lol I'm actually quite flattered, I only post occasionally. Amazing.
You a little Trumpflake or something?
I do not want your cheap brainburning drugs. They are useless for work. And I am a working man today.
I am honestly surprised to show up on this. lol.
I do not want your cheap brainburning drugs. They are useless for work. And I am a working man today.
I would love to see a Left Vs Right Survivor series. I bet you the right wins!
There would be no-one left.
My ism, it's full of beliefs.
Last I checked, there was more than one person on this rock, and individuals do indeed have limited multitasking ability. Therefore, it would appear possible for the human race to do more than one thing at a time.
"When you have eliminated the unacceptable, whatever is left, however improbable, must be the truthiness" - Holmes