More "breaking rumours" than breaking news, but...
http://www.nature.com/news/rumours-swel ... ng-1.22482 Rumours swell over new kind of gravitational-wave sighting
Gossip over potential detection of colliding neutron stars has astronomers in a tizzy
Davide Castelvecchi
24 August 2017 Updated: 25 August 2017,
Astrophysicists may have detected gravitational waves last week from the collision of two neutron stars in a distant galaxy — and telescopes trained on the same region might also have spotted the event.
Rumours to that effect are spreading fast online, much to researchers’ excitement. Such a detection could mark a new era of astronomy: one in which phenomena are both seen by conventional telescopes and ‘heard’ as vibrations in the fabric of space-time. “It would be an incredible advance in our understanding,” says Stuart Shapiro, an astrophysicist at the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign.
Scientists who work with gravitational-wave detectors won’t comment on the gossip because the data is still under analysis. Public records show that telescopes around the world have been looking at the same galaxy since last week, but astronomers caution that they could have been picking up signals from an unrelated source.
[...] Update 25 August: The LIGO–Virgo collaboration posted its top-level update* , saying: “Some promising gravitational-wave candidates have been identified in data from both LIGO and Virgo during our preliminary analysis, and we have shared what we currently know with astronomical observing partners. We are working hard to assure that the candidates are valid gravitational-wave events, and it will require time to establish the level of confidence needed to bring any results to the scientific community and the greater public. We will let you know as soon we have information ready to share.”
"In those rare moments of total quiet with a dark sky, I again feel the awe that struck me as a child. The feeling is utterly overwhelming as my mind races out across the stars. I feel peaceful and serene."
By Calla Cofield, Space.com Senior Writer | October 5, 2017
[...]
At a news conference at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology yesterday, [Nobel] co-prizewinner Rainer Weiss said the collaboration will make another exciting announcement on Oct. 16, but he wouldn't say what it was.
"The [gravitational] waves are interesting, and the fact that you can directly detect them is important, but the real payoff is going to be in the future," Weiss said. "It's already happened, in some regards, and more of it will happen on October 16. I won't tell you what it is, but I can tell you that there is more there, and I think there's another whoop-de-do arranged for that. And I urge you to go to it, because [the announcement] is actually very interesting. But I won't say any more than that."
[...] It seems very possible that the announcement will be one of four things:
• LIGO has detected another pair of merging black holes (the least likely possibility, based on Weiss' comments).
• It has detected gravitational waves coming from something other than black holes (most likely neutron stars).
• Scientists have pinpointed the source of one of those previously detected black-hole collisions by identifying an associated light signal.
•LIGO has found two merging neutron stars and also identified their source location.
Gravitational Wave Astrophysics: Early Results from GW Searches and Electromagnetic Counterparts
Monday, October 16 – Thursday, October 19, 2017
Crowne Plaza, Baton Rouge, Louisiana
The meeting will be hosted by the LSU Department of Physics and Astronomy
The 2017 IAU Symposium in Baton Rouge, La. will bring together astrophysicists and gravitational-wave researchers to compare past, present and future of observations of gravitational-wave sources, and share the excitement of a new field in astronomy.
"In those rare moments of total quiet with a dark sky, I again feel the awe that struck me as a child. The feeling is utterly overwhelming as my mind races out across the stars. I feel peaceful and serene."
Here's one of the interviews featured in the space.com article (above), available on YouTube.
Northwestern U astrophysicists and members of the LIGO collaboration Vicky Kalogera and Shane Larson
Click to play embedded YouTube video.
Published on 11 Feb 2016
Vicky Kalogera, senior LIGO astrophysicist and Northwestern professor of physics and astronomy explains how gravitational waves are emitted by two black holes losing energy just before a catastrophic merger. “This is the most powerful event we have detected as observers of the universe.”
"In those rare moments of total quiet with a dark sky, I again feel the awe that struck me as a child. The feeling is utterly overwhelming as my mind races out across the stars. I feel peaceful and serene."
"In those rare moments of total quiet with a dark sky, I again feel the awe that struck me as a child. The feeling is utterly overwhelming as my mind races out across the stars. I feel peaceful and serene."
