Peter Michaud
Astronomers Feast on First Light
From Gravitational Wave Event
Gemini Observatory “pulled out all the stops” to bring a gravitational
wave source into focus and capture early optical and infrared light
from the merger of two neutron stars. The critical ground-based
observations spanned almost a month during the summer of 2017
and allowed astronomers to dissect the first electromagnetic light
emissions ever associated with a gravitational wave event.
Note: The following story is adapted from the Gemini Observatory press release
issued on October 16, 2017. The original release (with videos and additional im-
ages) is available online.
Figure 1.
Astronomers Mansi
Kasliwal of Caltech (above)
and Edo Berger of Harvard
(below) spoke with
much excitement about
gravitational waves, and
the role Gemini played in
understanding them, in
their videos describing the
2017 summer observation
event and its significance.
The videos can be found
here.
Video credits: Caltech
and Harvard University
The first-ever detection of optical and infrared light linked to
a gravitational wave event initiated a time-critical sequence of
observations at the Gemini South telescope in Chile. “Gemini
pulled out all of the stops to get these data,” said Ryan Chor-
nock of Ohio University who analyzed the resulting flood of
data in his team’s study of the event. The Gemini data allowed
multiple research teams to form a complete picture of the af-
termath from the gravitational wave event (GW170817) local-
ized by the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-wave Observa-
tory (LIGO), Virgo interferometer, and Fermi Gamma-ray Space
Telescope on August 17, 2017. The Gemini imaging and spec-
troscopy spanned a period of 25 nights — while the object’s
light gradually faded from view.
Researchers from around the world announced their results on
October 16th at press conferences in Washington D.C., Caltech,
and one hosted by the European Southern Observatory in Eu-
rope. Well over a dozen papers have also been accepted for
publication in the journals Nature, Science, and The Astrophysi-
cal Journal Letters.
October 2017
GeminiFocus
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