Kilonova

Not to be confused with Kellanova.
Artist's impression of neutron stars merging, producing gravitational waves and resulting in a kilonova
Kilonova illustration

A kilonova (also called a macronova) is a transient astronomical event that occurs in a compact binary system when two neutron stars or a neutron star and a black hole merge.[1] These mergers are thought to produce gamma-ray bursts and emit bright electromagnetic radiation, called "kilonovae", due to the radioactive decay of heavy r-process nuclei that are produced and ejected fairly isotropically during the merger process.[2][3] The measured high sphericity of the kilonova AT2017gfo at early epochs was deduced from the blackbody nature of its spectrum.[4][5]

  1. ^ Cite error: The named reference LiPaczynski1998 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  2. ^ Metzger, Brian D. (2019-12-16). "Kilonovae". Living Reviews in Relativity. 23 (1): 1. arXiv:1910.01617. Bibcode:2019LRR....23....1M. doi:10.1007/s41114-019-0024-0. ISSN 1433-8351. PMC 6914724. PMID 31885490.
  3. ^ Rosswog, Stephan (2015-04-01). "The multi-messenger picture of compact binary mergers". International Journal of Modern Physics D. 24 (5): 1530012–1530052. arXiv:1501.02081. Bibcode:2015IJMPD..2430012R. doi:10.1142/S0218271815300128. ISSN 0218-2718. S2CID 118406320.
  4. ^ Cite error: The named reference Spher was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  5. ^ Sneppen, Albert (2023-09-01). "On the Blackbody Spectrum of Kilonovae". The Astrophysical Journal. 955 (1): 44. arXiv:2306.05452. Bibcode:2023ApJ...955...44S. doi:10.3847/1538-4357/acf200. ISSN 0004-637X.