Diagram of Neutron Star Merger (IMAGE)
Caption
The violent merger of two neutron stars is thought to involve three main energy-transfer processes, shown in this diagram, that give rise to the different types of radiation seen by astronomers, including a gamma-ray burst and a kilonova explosion seen in visible light. As the two stars spiral toward one another and merge to form a "hyper-massive" neutron star, a small fraction of the matter is ejected in a tidal tail (labeled "red component" in the diagram). The merger generates a short gamma-ray burst resulting from twin jets of material moving out from the rotational poles of the merger at close to the speed of light, likely triggered after the collapse of the remnant onto a black hole. In addition, an intense outflow of neutrinos from the hyper-massive neutron star drives a wind of material moving at about one-tenth the speed of light (labeled "blue component" in the diagram). The blue and red wavelengths that dominate the light from the kilonova at different stages result from different elements in the ejected material, which is heated by radioactive decay processes.
Credit
Image credit: Murguia-Berthier et al., <i>Science</i>
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