A team of astronomers in their first discovery recorded a rare astronomical event involving a compact binary merger emitting a prolonged Gamma-ray Burst (GRAPH) associated with emission kilonova was observed by 3.6 m DOT, a telescope built by the Aryabhatta Research Institute. Observational Sciences (ARIES).
What is Kilonova Emission? Learn about rare astronomical events and Gamma ray bursts (GRAPH)
Astronomers discovered the first astronomical event in which a long gamma-ray burst (Gbps) coupled with rare kilonova emission while tracking a high-energy light burst detected on 2021.
This is the outskirts of the Milky Way, about 1 billion light years away from us.
The 3.6 m Devasthal Optical Telescope (DOT) observed the earliest stages of the kilonova. Its important information has completely changed scientists’ understanding of the origin of Gbps.
: What is Mandous Cyclone? Check out all the details here
What is GRA?
- Powerful astronomical bursts of high-energy gamma rays called Gbps emit more energy in a few seconds than our Sun will emit in its entire lifetime
- It has two distinct emission stages:
- Short-lived instantaneous emission (initial burst of gamma rays).
- A long-lived multi-wavelength luminescent phase.
What is Kilonova?
- Kilonova emissions are radiation emitted from the merger of neutron stars or any binary system.
- They can also be associated with short Gbps.
- They are visible as infrared light with short period gamma rays
- It is also known as a potential source of gravitational waves.
- One theory is that the heat generated by the radioactive decay of heavier elements can emit kilonovae.
- This process can create heavier elements, such as gold and platinum.
- Only a few telescopes on Earth, including the 3.6 m DOT of the Aryabhatta Research Institute of Observational Sciences (ARIES), can detect kilonova objects and gravitational waves at these wavelengths to the limit lackluster because this is a tedious job.
How did they discover it?
- When Scientists from ARIES used data from ARIES’ 3.6 m DOT along with other telescopes, including the Hubble Space Telescope to study oGRAPH (GRAPH 211211A), discovered by the Observing Swift Neil Gehrels of NASA and the Fermi Space Gamma-ray Telescope on December 11, 2021 they saw a high-energy burst that lasted about a minute.
- Follow-up observations made from the 3.6-meter Devasthal Optical Telescope identified a kilonova.
- During this event, according to DOT 3.6 m observations, both thermal and nonthermal emissions were included in the spectral energy distribution of the afterglow.
What is the 3.6 m Devasthal Optical Telescope (DOT) –
- The clear-aperture Ritchey–Chrétien telescope was built by the Aryabhatta Research Institute of Observational Sciences (ARIES) located at the Devasthal Observatory near Nainital, Kumaon, India.
- ARIES operates another 1.3m telescope at the same location.
- The Devasthal Optical Telescope (DOT) telescope was remotely activated by the Prime Ministers of India and Belgium in March 2016.
- The optical telescope is currently the largest reflecting telescope in Asia and was built in collaboration with Belgian company Advanced Optical and Mechanical Systems (AMOS).
- The telescope fills the large vertical gap in the 4m telescope class in the Asian region.
- The telescope has an optical spectrometer, a CCD imager and a near-infrared spectrometer.
- This is also the first telescope of its kind in India to have an active optical system.
- It also has wavefront sensors and pneumatic actuators that help compensate for small distortions in the shape of the 4.3-tonne mirror due to gravity or atmospheric aberrations.
“But the afterglow character of this event clearly favors the kilonova. This could mean that some processes are common between long and short Gbps. The new research results clearly show that our classification of long and short Gbps is currently challenging.”
said Shashi Bhushan Pandey, DOT Principal Investigator and one of the paper’s authors.
This international collaborative study includes researchers from:
- Arizona State University
- Los Alamos National Laboratory
- University of Rome, University of Maryland
- George Washington University
- NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center
- Permiter Institute of Theoretical Physics
- Canada, Pennsylvania State University
- Pandit Ravishakar Shukla University
- Tokyo Institute of Technology
- Deen Dayal Upadhyay Gorakhpur University
- Boise State University, University of Bath
- Unidad Asociada al CSIS and Instituto de Astrofisica de Andalucia in Spain.
“The DOT located in Nainital has a vertical advantage that facilitates event tracking. Without the 3.6 meter optical telescope, we would not have been able to detect the event from here. To study such events further, we will need to make more sensitive instruments,” Pandey added.
: How are tornadoes named around the world?
Categories: Optical Illusion
Source: pagasa.edu.vn