Title: Cosmic fireworks: shining light on gravitational wave sources!

Speaker: Prof. Varun Bhalerao, Department of Physics, IIT Bombay

Abstract: What happens when two neutron stars collide? Are these really the sources of most of the gold, platinum, and other heavy elements in the universe? After decades of theoretical speculation, we finally found the answer this August. Advanced gravitational wave detectors - LIGO and Virgo - discovered the coalescence of two neutron stars 130 million light years away from Earth. At nearly the same time, Earth-orbiting satellites saw a flash of high energy radiation from the same direction. What followed was arguably the most frantic period of activity in modern astronomy: with over 3500 individuals from 950 institutes joining forces to pinpoint the source in the sky and uncover it's secrets. I will talk about this first binary neutron star merger, how we found and understood it, and what it means for us in the days to come.