First Light from Gravitational Wave

Mission of NASA captured Light from Gravitational wave event for the First Time;

For the first time in the History, National Aeronautics Space Administration (NASA) scientists have detected light tied to a gravitational wave event, the event was mainly merging of two neutron stars in the galaxy of NGC 4993. This galaxy is located about 130 million light years away from Earth in the constellation of Hydra.

Light Detection Details:

     On 17th August 2017, after 8:41 a.m EDT. NASA's Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope captured a light from a powerful and energetic explosion, which was immediately reported to all the astronomers world wide. The Scientists at the National Science Foundation's Laser Interferometer Gravitational Wave Observatory (LIGO) detected gravitational waves dubbed  GW170817 from a pair of smashing stars tied to the gamma  ray burst,encouraging astronomers to look for the aftermath of the explosion.

 The detection of X-rays demonstrates that neutron star mergers can form powerful jets streaming out at near light speed, said Goddard Eleonora Troja, who ledone of the Chandra teams and found the X-ray emission. We had to wait for nine days to detect it because we viewed it from the side, unlike anything we had seen before.

On 22nd August 2017, NASA's Hubble Space Telescope began imaging the kilonova and capturing its near-infrared spectrum which revealed the motion and chemical composition of the expanding orbits.

Image Details:

    On 17th August 2017, the Laser Interferometer Gravitational Wave Observatory detected gravitational waves from a neutron star collision. Within 12 hours, observatories had identified the source of the event within the galaxy NGC 4993, shown in this Hubble Space Telescope image, and located an associated stellar flare called a kilonova. Image Credit : NASA and ESA

Credits:

Text and Image Credit : NASA Blog

Image and Information credit : LIGO Observatory