Cosmoview Episode 61: First Kilonova Progenitor System Identified
Astronomers using data from the SMARTS 1.5-meter Telescope at the Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory (CTIO), a Program of NSF's NOIRLab, have made the first confirmed detection of a star system that will one day form a kilonova — the ultra-powerful, gold-producing explosion created by merging neutron stars. These systems are so phenomenally rare that only about 10 such systems are thought to exist in the entire Milky Way.
Credit:Images and Videos: CTIO/NOIRLab/NSF/AURA, Fermilab, T. Puzia (PUC), J. da Silva/Spaceengine/M. Zamani, P. Marenfeld, N. Bartmann
Music: Stellardrone - In Time
About the Video
Id: | noirlab2303a |
Release date: | Feb. 1, 2023, 9 a.m. |
Related releases: | noirlab2303 |
Duration: | 01 m 28 s |
Frame rate: | 29.97 |