Tuesday, 17 October 2017

A new era of space observations

Many observatories around the globe pointed to the area of the universe where two neutron stars collided. Physicists from the University of Trento are participating in this unprecedented discovery

Versione stampabile

August 17, 2017, is a date that will be remembered in the history of science. At 14:41, Italian time, the LIGO and Virgo detectors ‘saw’ the collision of two neutron stars for the first time.

The almost simultaneous detection of gamma rays by the space telescope Fermi (NASA) and the Integral observatory (ESA), from the same source, transforms our understanding of the workings of the universe. This confirms that at least some short gamma-ray bursts, discovered more than 40 years ago, are generated by the collision of neutron stars.

And this is also the first time that a cosmic event is observed both by gravitational wave detectors and by orbiting and ground-based observatories.

The LIGO and Virgo collaborations detected gravitational waves for the first time about two years ago.

Today, just two weeks after the Physics Nobel Prize was awarded for this achievement, LIGO and Virgo announced another extraordinary scientific discovery, which opens a new era of cosmic exploration.

This discovery, that will change the way in which we observe space, was announced at a joint press conference held in Washington DC (USA) by the LIGO/Virgo collaborations and some 70 observatories. The conference was live streamed at the University of Trento too, in a crowded room of the Physics department in Povo.

More details in the joint press release (in Italian) by INFN, INAF and ASI.