First observations of merging neutron stars mark a new era in astronomy

First observations of merging neutron stars mark a new era in astronomy 10/22/2017 10:07 AM EDT After LIGO detected gravitational waves from the merger of two neutron stars, the race was on to detect a visible counterpart, because unlike the colliding black holes responsible for LIGO's four previous detections, this event was expected to produce an explosion of visible light. A small team led by the University of California, Santa Cruz, was the first to find the source of the gravitational waves, capturing the first images of the event with the Swope Telescope in Chile. Full story at https://news.ucsc.edu/2017/10/neutron-star-merger.html Source University of California, Santa Cruz This is an NSF News From the Field item. Follow NSF:  This email was sent using GovDelivery Communications Cloud on behalf of: National Science Foundation Update · 2415 Eisenhower Avenue, Alexandria, VA 22314 · 703-292-5111