Discover the source of gravitational waves from neutron stars

Scientists can detect a new type of gravitational wave generated by the collision of two neutron stars.

All three gravitational waves have been discovered since the collision of black holes. J. Craig Wheeler, an astronomer at the University of Texas, Austin, USA, posted on Twitter on August 18 about the possibility of LIGO discovering an entirely new source of gravitational broadcasting, which is from the collision of neutron star.

The collision of two neutron stars can produce gravitational waves similar to those when two black holes merged.(Photo: New Scientist).

The Hubble telescope of the US Aerospace Agency (NASA) is observing a pair of neutron stars in the galaxy NGC 4993 , 130 million light-years from Earth. If LIGO investigated the collision of these two neutron stars, it could capture the gravitational waves that we were looking for, according to New Scientist.

Neutron stars have similarities with black holes because they all form from the rest of the exploded star. But the neutron has a smaller mass and does not shrink into an extremely small point like a black hole. Neutron stars are one of the most dense objects in the universe.

Neutron stars that collide with each other produce signals that look like black holes collide, but they are weaker and harder to detect. LIGO has long been searching for gravitational wave signals from neutron stars, but has not been successful until now.

In 2016, a group of international astronomers made history when they first discovered gravitational waves using the Interfering Laser Wave Observatory (LIGO), according to Popular Mechanics. These are ripples in space and time created by the merger of two black holes 1.3 billion light-years from Earth. Until now, scientists have only recorded three times the gravitational wave signal.

1. What is a Neutron Star?