Two neutron
stars are on a collision course in the M15 globular cluster that will
eventually lead to a massive explosion.
Sitting
about 37,000 light-years from Earth, the M15 cluster contains a double neutron
star system that is gradually spiraling in itself. Astronomers believe that the
resulting merger will cast off a gamma
ray burst (GRB), one of the most powerful explosions in the universe.
Astronomers
also suspect that neutron star collisions may be the source of between 10 and 30
percent of all GRBs observed from Earth. They conducted about three million
computer simulations to determine the frequency that neutron star pairs form in
globular clusters.
In this
image, a visible light views of the M15 cluster is set alongside a series of
computer-generated images (at right) depicting the final moments of a double
neutron star merger.
-- SPACE.com Staff
Credit: NOAO/AURA/NSF/NASA/D. Berry.
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