Space Photos of the Week: 130 Million Light Years Away, Two Neutron Stars Collide

This week space is all about the kilonova. For the first time in human history and modern science, researchers have detected gravitational waves produced by the violent impact of two dense neutron stars some 130 million light years away. Pics or it didn’t happen, right? Well, we’ve got two of them.

Neutron stars are some of the smallest and most dense objects ever discovered. They’re usually around six miles wide, but can weigh as much as 15 suns. When those super-dense objects rammed into each other, the collision warped spacetime itself, sending waves through the galaxy until they collided with instruments at gravitational wave observatories.

The instruments at LIGO, one of those observatories, are so sensitive they can detect the smallest change in the fabric of spacetime. LIGO also detected gamma rays from the blast, and when combined with the full spectrum from observing telescopes like the European Southern Observatory’s Very Large Telescope, an image of the red galaxy arms and the collision mark become visible to the naked eye.

Space is pretty cool, need some more gorgeous photos? Check out the full collection here.