Image obtained by ESO's Gamma-ray Burst Optical/Near-infrared Detector (GROND) attached to the MPG/ESO 2.2-metre telescope at La Silla Observatory.
Image Credit: ESO/S. Smartt & T.-W. Chen
October 17, 2017
VST image of kilonova in NGC 4993
This image from the VST telescope at ESO's Paranal Observatory in Chile shows the galaxy NGC 4993, about 130 million light-years from Earth. The galaxy is not itself unusual, but it contains something never before witnessed, the aftermath of the explosion of a pair of merging neutron stars, a rare event called a kilonova (seen just above and slightly to the left of the centre of the galaxy). This merger also produced gravitational waves and gamma rays, both of which were detected by LIGO-Virgo and Fermi/INTEGRAL respectively.
Image Credit: ESO/A. Grado
Explanation from: https://www.eso.org/public/images/eso1733m/
The sky around the galaxy NGC 4993
This wide-field image generated from the Digitized Sky Survey 2 shows the sky around the galaxy NGC 4993. This galaxy was the host to a merger between two neutron stars, which led to a gravitational wave detection, a short gamma-ray burst and an optical identification of a kilonova event.
Image Credit: ESO and Digitized Sky Survey 2
Explanation from: https://www.eso.org/public/images/eso1733i/
