Astronomers using the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope have observed a visible counterpart to gravitational waves for the first time: a kilonova from merging neutron stars.

For the first time, Hubble has observed the source of a gravitational wave: the merging of two neutron stars. This merger created a kilonova — an object first predicted by theory more than 30 ago. This event also provides the strongest evidence yet that short duration gamma-ray bursts are caused by mergers of neutron stars. These observations may help solve another long-standing question in astronomy: the origin of heavy chemical elements, like gold and platinum. In the merger of two neutron stars, the conditions appear just right for their production.

Credit:
Directed by: Mathias Jäger
Visual design and editing: Martin Kornmesser
Written by: Izumi Hansen, Rosa Jesse, Richard Hook and Mathias Jäger
Narration: Sara Mendes da Costa
Footage: NASA, ESA/Hubble, ESO,LIGO-Virgo, N.R. Tanvir, A.J. Levan and the VIN-ROUGE collaboration, E. Pian et al./S. Smartt & ePESSTO, L. Calçada, M. Kornmesser, N. Risinger (skysurvey.org), Digitized Sky Survey 2, Stéphane Guisard (www.eso.org/~sguisard), Liam Young/Unknown Fields, Y.Beletsky (LCO), J. Colosimo, Alexandre Santerne (Instituto de Astrofísica e Ciências do Espaço, Universidade do Porto) / Planetário do Porto - Centro Ciência Viva, P. Aniol, Gianluca Lombardi (glphoto.it), B. Tafreshi (twanight.org) and C. Malin (christophmalin.com).
Music: STAN DART (www.stan-dart.com)/Johan B. Monell (www.johanmonell.com)
Web and technical support: Mathias André and Raquel Yumi Shida
Executive producer: Lars Lindberg Christensen