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Multi-messenger observations of a binary neutron star merger

  • LIGO Scientific Collaboration and Virgo Collaboration
  • , Fermi GBM
  • , INTEGRAL
  • , Icecube Collaboration
  • , AstroSat Cadmium Zinc Telluride Imager Team
  • , IPN Collaboration
  • , The Insight-HXMT Collaboration
  • , ANTARES Collaboration
  • , The Swift Collaboration
  • , AGILE Team
  • , The 1M2H Team
  • , The Dark Energy Camera GW-EM Collaboration and the DES Collaboration
  • , DLT40 Collaboration
  • , GRAWITA: GRAvitational Wave Inaf TeAm
  • , The Fermi Large Area Telescope Collaboration
  • , ATCA: Australia Telescope Compact Array
  • , ASKAP: Australian SKA Pathfinder
  • , Las Cumbres Observatory Collaboration
  • , OzGrav, DWF (Deeper, Wider, Faster program), AST3, and CAASTRO Collaborations
  • , The VINROUGE Collaboration
  • MASTER Collaboration, J-GEM, GROWTH, JAGWAR, Caltech-NRAO, TTU-NRAO, and NuSTAR Collaborations, Pan-STARRS, The MAXI Team, TZAC Consortium, KU Collaboration, Nordic Optical Telescope, ePESSTO, GROND, Texas Tech University, SALT Group, TOROS: Transient Robotic Observatory of the South Collaboration, The BOOTES Collaboration, MWA: Murchison Widefield Array, The CALET Collaboration, IKI-GW Follow-up Collaboration, H.E.S.S. Collaboration, LOFAR Collaboration, LWA: Long Wavelength Array, HAWC Collaboration, The Pierre Auger Collaboration, ALMA Collaboration, Euro VLBI Team, Pi of the Sky Collaboration, The Chandra Team at McGill University, DFN: Desert Fireball Network, ATLAS, High Time Resolution Universe Survey, RIMAS and RATIR, SKA South Africa/MeerKAT
  • California Institute of Technology
  • Louisiana State University
  • Salerno
  • Complesso Universitario di Monte S.Angelo
  • University of Florida
  • Monash University
  • LIGO Livingston Observatory
  • IN2P3 Institut National de Physique Nucleaire et de Physique des Particules
  • University of Sannio at Benevento
  • Complesso Universitario di Monte Sant'Angelo
  • Max Planck Institute for Gravitational Physics (Albert Einstein Institute)
  • University of Mississippi
  • University of Illinois
  • University of Cambridge
  • Science Park
  • LIGO, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
  • Instituto Nacional de Pesquisas Espaciais
  • Gran
  • Laboratori Nazionali del Gran Sasso
  • The Inter-University Centre for Astronomy and Astrophysics
  • Tata Institute of Fundamental Research
  • University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee
  • Leibniz Universität Hannover
  • Università di Pisa
  • INFN
  • Australian National University
  • University of the West of Scotland
  • Université Paris-Saclay
  • California State University
  • European Gravitational Observatory (EGO)
  • Chennai Mathematical Institute
  • Università di Roma Tor Vergata
  • Gran Sasso Science Institute
  • Universität Hamburg
  • Cardiff University
  • Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University
  • APC - AstroParticule et Cosmologie
  • Korea Institute of Science and Technology Information
  • West Virginia University
  • Università di Perugia
  • INFN
  • Syracuse University
  • University of Minnesota Twin Cities
  • University of Glasgow
  • LIGO Hanford Observatory
  • Institute for Particle and Nuclear Physics
  • NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center
  • Columbia University in the City of New York
  • Stanford University
  • Dipartimento di Fisica
  • University of Padua
  • Lendulet Astrophysics Research Group
  • Nicolaus Copernicus Astronomical Center of the Polish Academy of Sciences
  • Rochester Institute of Technology
  • University of Birmingham
  • RRCAT
  • Lomonosov Moscow State University
  • University of Strathclyde
  • Pennsylvania State University
  • University of Western Australia
  • Radboud University Nijmegen
  • Observatoire de la Côte d'Azur
  • UMR6082
  • Washington State University
  • University of Oregon
  • Laboratoire Kastler Brossel
  • Carleton College, USA
  • University of Adelaide
  • Astronomical Observatory Warsaw University
  • Vrije University Amsterdam
  • University of Maryland
  • Georgia Institute of Technology
  • Université Claude Bernard Lyon 1
  • Università degli Studi di Genova
  • University of Tokyo
  • Tsinghua University
  • Texas Tech University at Lubbock
  • Kenyon College
  • University of Valencia
  • Centro Studi e Ricerche Enrico Fermi
  • National Tsing Hua University
  • Northwestern University
  • Canadian Institute for Theoretical Astrophysics
  • University of Chicago
  • Pusan National University
  • Chinese University of Hong Kong
  • Osservatorio Astronomico di Padova
  • Trento Institute for Fundamental Physics and Applications
  • University of Melbourne
  • Università di Roma la Sapienza
  • Université Libre de Bruxelles
  • Sonoma State University
  • Montana State University
  • Universitat de les Illes Balears
  • University of Texas Rio Grande Valley
  • Bellevue College
  • Institute for Plasma Research India

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

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Abstract

On 2017 August 17 a binary neutron star coalescence candidate (later designated GW170817) with merger time 12:41:04 UTC was observed through gravitational waves by the Advanced LIGO and Advanced Virgo detectors. The Fermi Gamma-ray Burst Monitor independently detected a gamma-ray burst (GRB 170817A) with a time delay of ~1.7 s with respect to the merger time. From the gravitational-wave signal, the source was initially localized to a sky region of 31 deg2 at a luminosity distance of 40± 8 8 Mpc and with component masses consistent with neutron stars. The component masses were later measured to be in the range 0.86 to 2.26 M☉. An extensive observing campaign was launched across the electromagnetic spectrum leading to the discovery of a bright optical transient (SSS17a, now with the IAU identification of AT 2017gfo) in NGC 4993 (at ~40 Mpc) less than 11 hours after the merger by the One-Meter, Two Hemisphere (1M2H) team using the 1 m Swope Telescope. The optical transient was independently detected by multiple teams within an hour. Subsequent observations targeted the object and its environment. Early ultraviolet observations revealed a blue transient that faded within 48 hours. Optical and infrared observations showed a redward evolution over ∼10 days. Following early non-detections, X-ray and radio emission were discovered at the transient's position ~9 and ~16 days, respectively, after the merger. Both the X-ray and radio emission likely arise from a physical process that is distinct from the one that generates the UV/optical/near-infrared emission. No ultra-high-energy gamma-rays and no neutrino candidates consistent with the source were found in follow-up searches. These observations support the hypothesis that GW170817 was produced by the merger of two neutron stars in NGC 4993 followed by a short gamma-ray burst (GRB 170817A) and a kilonova/macronova powered by the radioactive decay of r-process nuclei synthesized in the ejecta.

Original languageEnglish
Article numberL12
Number of pages59
JournalAstrophysical Journal Letters
Volume848
Issue number2
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 01 Jan 2017

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