The spherical blast was triggered by the merger of two very dense stellar remnants called neutron stars. Read more at straitstimes.com.
WASHINGTON - Astronomers have observed what might be the “perfect explosion,” a colossal and utterly spherical blast triggered by the merger of two very dense stellar remnants called neutron stars shortly before the combined entity collapsed to form a black hole.
The existence of kilonova explosions was proposed in 1974 and confirmed in 2013, but what they looked like was unknown until this one was detected in 2017 and studied intensively. The researchers had expected the explosion to perhaps look like a flattened disk - a colossal luminous cosmic pancake, possibly with a jet of material streaming out of it.
Each exploded and collapsed after running out of fuel, leaving behind a small and dense core about 12 miles in diameter but packing more mass than the sun.Very gradually, they drew nearer to each other, orbiting at a speedy clip. The two briefly formed a single massive neutron star that then collapsed to form a black hole, an even denser object with gravity so fierce that not even light can escape.
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Astronomers marvel at 'perfect explosion,' a spherical cosmic fireballWASHINGTON : Astronomers have observed what might be the 'perfect explosion,' a colossal and utterly spherical blast triggered by the merger of two very dense stellar remnants called neutron stars shortly before the combined entity collapsed to form a black hole.Researchers on Wednesday described for the
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