Abstract
With the first direct detection of merging black holes in 2015, the era of gravitational wave (GW) astrophysics began. A complete picture of compact object mergers, however, requires the detection of an electromagnetic (EM) counterpart. We report ultraviolet (UV) and x-ray observations by Swift and the Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array of the EM counter part of the binary neutron star merger GW170817. The bright, rapidly fading UV emission indicates a high mass (≈0.03 solar masses) wind-driven outflow with moderate electron fraction (Ye ≈ 0.27). Combined with the x-ray limits, we favor an observer viewing angle of ≈30° away from the orbital rotation axis, which avoids both obscuration from the heaviest elements in the orbital plane and a direct view of any ultrarelativistic, highly collimated ejecta (a g-ray burst afterglow).
Original language | English (US) |
---|---|
Pages (from-to) | 1565-1570 |
Number of pages | 6 |
Journal | Science |
Volume | 358 |
Issue number | 6370 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - Dec 22 2017 |
All Science Journal Classification (ASJC) codes
- General
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In: Science, Vol. 358, No. 6370, 22.12.2017, p. 1565-1570.
Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
TY - JOUR
T1 - Swift and NuSTAR observations of GW170817
T2 - Detection of a blue kilonova
AU - Evans, P. A.
AU - Cenko, S. B.
AU - Kennea, J. A.
AU - Emery, S. W.K.
AU - Kuin, N. P.M.
AU - Korobkin, O.
AU - Wollaeger, R. T.
AU - Fryer, C. L.
AU - Madsen, K. K.
AU - Harrison, F. A.
AU - Xu, Y.
AU - Nakar, E.
AU - Hotokezaka, K.
AU - Lien, A.
AU - Campana, S.
AU - Oates, S. R.
AU - Troja, E.
AU - Breeveld, A. A.
AU - Marshall, F. E.
AU - Barthelmy, S. D.
AU - Beardmore, A. P.
AU - Burrows, D. N.
AU - Cusumano, G.
AU - D’Aì, A.
AU - D’Avanzo, P.
AU - D’Elia, V.
AU - De Pasquale, M.
AU - Even, W. P.
AU - Fontes, C. J.
AU - Forster, K.
AU - Garcia, J.
AU - Giommi, P.
AU - Grefenstette, B.
AU - Gronwall, C.
AU - Hartmann, D. H.
AU - Heida, M.
AU - Hungerford, A. L.
AU - Kasliwal, M. M.
AU - Krimm, H. A.
AU - Levan, A. J.
AU - Malesani, D.
AU - Melandri, A.
AU - Miyasaka, H.
AU - Nousek, J. A.
AU - O’Brien, P. T.
AU - Osborne, J. P.
AU - Pagani, C.
AU - Page, K. L.
AU - Palmer, D. M.
AU - Perri, M.
AU - Pike, S.
AU - Racusin, J. L.
AU - Rosswog, S.
AU - Siegel, M. H.
AU - Sakamoto, T.
AU - Sbarufatti, B.
AU - Tagliaferri, G.
AU - Tanvir, N. R.
AU - Tohuvavohu, A.
N1 - Funding Information: We acknowledge the leadership and scientific vision of Neil Gehrels (1952–2017), former principal investigator of Swift, without whom the work we present here would not have been possible. Funding for the Swift mission in the United Kingdom is provided by the UK Space Agency. S.R.O. gratefully acknowledges the support of the Leverhulme Trust Early Career Fellowship. The Swift team at the Mission Operations Center at The Pennsylvania State University acknowledges support from NASA contract NAS5-00136. The Italian Swift team acknowledges support from ASI-INAF grant I/004/11/3. S.R. has been supported by the Swedish Research Council (VR) under grant 2016-03657_3, by the Swedish National Space Board under grant Dnr. 107/16, and by the research environment grant “Gravitational Radiation and Electromagnetic Astrophysical Transients (GREAT)” funded by the Swedish Research council (VR) under grant Dnr 2016-06012. This research used resources provided by the Los Alamos National Laboratory Institutional Computing Program, which is supported by the U.S. Department of Energy National Nuclear Security Administration under contract DE-AC52-06NA25396. Very Large Telescope data were obtained under European Southern Observatory program number 099.D-0668. NuSTAR acknowledges funding from NASA contract NNG08FD60C. A.J.L. and N.R.T. acknowledge funding from the European Research Council under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 program, grant 725246. Researchers at Los Alamos National Laboratory were supported by the National Nuclear Security Administration of the U.S. Department of Energy under contract DE-AC52-06NA25396. S.W.K.E. is supported by a Science and Technology Facilities Council studentship. The observations are archived at www.swift.ac.uk for Swift and https://heasarc.gsfc.nasa.gov/docs/nustar/nustar_archive.html for NuSTAR, under the observation IDs given in table S2. Reduced photometry and surveyed areas are tabulated in the supplementary materials. The BOXFIT software is available at http://cosmo.nyu.edu/ afterglowlibrary/boxfit2011.html, SUPERNU at https://bitbucket.org/ drrossum/supernu/wiki/Home, and access to WINNET source code and input files will be granted upon request via https://bitbucket.org/ korobkin/winnet. The dynamical model ejecta are available at http:// compact-merger.astro.su.se/downloads_fluid_trajectories.html (as run 12). The SUPERNU and BOXFIT input files are available in the supplementary materials. Funding Information: We acknowledge the leadership and scientific vision of Neil Gehrels (1952?2017), former principal investigator of Swift, without whom the work we present here would not have been possible. Funding for the Swift mission in the United Kingdom is provided by the UK Space Agency. S.R.O. gratefully acknowledges the support of the Leverhulme Trust Early Career Fellowship. The Swift team at the Mission Operations Center at The Pennsylvania State University acknowledges support from NASA contract NAS5-00136. The Italian Swift team acknowledges support from ASI-INAF grant I/004/11/3. S.R. has been supported by the Swedish Research Council (VR) under grant 2016- 03657_3, by the Swedish National Space Board under grant Dnr. 107/16, and by the research environment grant ?Gravitational Radiation and Electromagnetic Astrophysical Transients (GREAT)? funded by the Swedish Research council (VR) under grant Dnr 2016- 06012. This research used resources provided by the Los Alamos National Laboratory Institutional Computing Program, which is supported by the U.S. Department of Energy National Nuclear Security Administration under contract DE-AC52-06NA25396. Very Large Telescope data were obtained under European Southern Observatory program number 099.D-0668. NuSTAR acknowledges funding from NASA contract NNG08FD60C. A.J.L. and N.R.T. acknowledge funding from the European Research Council under the European Union?s Horizon 2020 program, grant 725246. Researchers at Los Alamos National Laboratory were supported by the National Nuclear Security Administration of the U.S. Department of Energy under contract DE-AC52-06NA25396. S.W.K.E. is supported by a Science and Technology Facilities Council studentship. The observations are archived at www.swift.ac.uk for Swift and https://heasarc.gsfc.nasa.gov/docs/nustar/nustar_archive.html for NuSTAR, under the observation IDs given in table S2. Reduced photometry and surveyed areas are tabulated in the supplementary materials. The BOXFIT software is available at http://cosmo.nyu.edu/afterglowlibrary/boxfit2011.html, SUPERNU at https://bitbucket.org/drrossum/supernu/wiki/Home, and access to WINNET source code and input files will be granted upon request via https://bitbucket.org/korobkin/winnet. The dynamical model ejecta are available at http://compact-merger.astro.su.se/downloads_fluid_trajectories.html (as run 12). The SUPERNU and BOXFIT input files are available in the supplementary materials.
PY - 2017/12/22
Y1 - 2017/12/22
N2 - With the first direct detection of merging black holes in 2015, the era of gravitational wave (GW) astrophysics began. A complete picture of compact object mergers, however, requires the detection of an electromagnetic (EM) counterpart. We report ultraviolet (UV) and x-ray observations by Swift and the Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array of the EM counter part of the binary neutron star merger GW170817. The bright, rapidly fading UV emission indicates a high mass (≈0.03 solar masses) wind-driven outflow with moderate electron fraction (Ye ≈ 0.27). Combined with the x-ray limits, we favor an observer viewing angle of ≈30° away from the orbital rotation axis, which avoids both obscuration from the heaviest elements in the orbital plane and a direct view of any ultrarelativistic, highly collimated ejecta (a g-ray burst afterglow).
AB - With the first direct detection of merging black holes in 2015, the era of gravitational wave (GW) astrophysics began. A complete picture of compact object mergers, however, requires the detection of an electromagnetic (EM) counterpart. We report ultraviolet (UV) and x-ray observations by Swift and the Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array of the EM counter part of the binary neutron star merger GW170817. The bright, rapidly fading UV emission indicates a high mass (≈0.03 solar masses) wind-driven outflow with moderate electron fraction (Ye ≈ 0.27). Combined with the x-ray limits, we favor an observer viewing angle of ≈30° away from the orbital rotation axis, which avoids both obscuration from the heaviest elements in the orbital plane and a direct view of any ultrarelativistic, highly collimated ejecta (a g-ray burst afterglow).
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85031772208&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=85031772208&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1126/science.aap9580
DO - 10.1126/science.aap9580
M3 - Article
C2 - 29038371
AN - SCOPUS:85031772208
SN - 0036-8075
VL - 358
SP - 1565
EP - 1570
JO - Science
JF - Science
IS - 6370
ER -