Astronomers detect gravitational waves created by massive neutron star collision

By Ashley Strickland, CNN
Updated 5:29 PM ET, Mon January 6, 2020

(CNN)For only the second time, astronomers have detected gravitational waves that were created by the violent merger of two neutron stars, according to a new study.

But the two neutron stars that collided are more massive than all known binary star pairs. They collided 520 million light-years away, so the gravitational waves are just now reaching us even though they occurred millions of years ago.

Astronomers announced the discovery at the 235th annual meeting of the American Astronomical Society in Honolulu Monday, and said this finding challenges theories about how neutron star pairs form and merge.

On April 25, 2019, the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-wave Observatory, or LIGO, in Livingston, Louisiana picked up on the telltale signal of gravitational waves in space.

More:
https://us.cnn.com/2020/01/06/world/massive-neutron-star-collision-scn/index.html