“If you’ve seen one gamma-ray burst, you’ve seen one gamma-ray burst!” -Common quote among gamma-ray burst astronomers, emphasizing how little we know about them.
When the first gravitational wave signal ever, GW150914, was directly detected, NASA’s Fermi GBM team shocked the world by announcing the detection of a high-energy burst of electromagnetic radiation. This was a huge surprise, because merging black holes shouldn’t have a bright gamma ray or X-ray flash associated with them!
Image credit: NASA, of an inspiral and merger of two massive, compact objects; illustration only.
A statistical reanalysis and the ESA’s INTEGRAL satellite both failed to confirm it, but it would take a second event to know for certain. With GW151226 now in the books, a look through the Fermi GBM data shows what we suspected all along: black holes DON’T burst when they merge!
A double black hole, which would require an incredibly unlikely scenario to produce high-energy radiation. Image credit: Image credit: NASA, ESA and G. Bacon (STScI).
Go see the full story over on Forbes today.
from ScienceBlogs http://ift.tt/1UbMgM8
“If you’ve seen one gamma-ray burst, you’ve seen one gamma-ray burst!” -Common quote among gamma-ray burst astronomers, emphasizing how little we know about them.
When the first gravitational wave signal ever, GW150914, was directly detected, NASA’s Fermi GBM team shocked the world by announcing the detection of a high-energy burst of electromagnetic radiation. This was a huge surprise, because merging black holes shouldn’t have a bright gamma ray or X-ray flash associated with them!
Image credit: NASA, of an inspiral and merger of two massive, compact objects; illustration only.
A statistical reanalysis and the ESA’s INTEGRAL satellite both failed to confirm it, but it would take a second event to know for certain. With GW151226 now in the books, a look through the Fermi GBM data shows what we suspected all along: black holes DON’T burst when they merge!
A double black hole, which would require an incredibly unlikely scenario to produce high-energy radiation. Image credit: Image credit: NASA, ESA and G. Bacon (STScI).
Go see the full story over on Forbes today.
from ScienceBlogs http://ift.tt/1UbMgM8
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