Neutron star: New telescope detects dead sun colliding
Neutron star collisions are an opportunity to see what’s inside these incredible objects Astronomers have for the first time been able to detect collisions with dead suns known as neutron stars, thanks to a powerful new telescope. Neutron star collisions are key to our understanding of the Universe. They are thought to have created the heavy metals that formed the stars and planets like us billions of years ago. The light from the collision was only visible for a few nights so telescopes had to race to find it. Astronomers observed one of these collisions in 2017, but most found it by luck. The British Gravity Wave Optical Transient Observer (GOTO), located above the clouds on the Spanish volcanic island of La Palma will now systematically hunt them down. “When the really good detection comes along, everything has to be done to the max,” Prof Danny Steeghs, from the University of Warwick, told me in La Palma. “Speed is of the essence. We are looking for something short-lived – not mu