Black holes gobbling up neutron stars confirmed as source of gravitational waves for first time

Around one billion years ago, two of the most extreme objects in the universe smashed into each other.

Key points:

• Scientists have detected two neutron star-black hole collisions by analysing gravitational waves
• The confirmed observations, which happened 10 days apart, is the last piece of the puzzle in major gravitational wave discoveries
• Studying these events can answer big questions about the evolution of the universe

The explosive death spiral of a neutron star into a black hole produced gravitational waves — ripples that are created in the moments before two objects with large masses collide.

more…

So, now we have…

Black hole, black hole collision.

Neutron star, neutron star collision

Black hole, neutron star collision.

Tau.Neutrino said:

So, now we have…

Black hole, black hole collision.

Neutron star, neutron star collision

Black hole, neutron star collision.

And unknown, unknown collision

Come to think of it. Where are all the red dwarf, black hole collisions?

Both red dwarf, black hole and white dwarf, black hole collisions ought to be oodles more frequent than collisions involving neutron stars.

mollwollfumble said:

Tau.Neutrino said:

So, now we have…

Black hole, black hole collision.

Neutron star, neutron star collision

Black hole, neutron star collision.

And unknown, unknown collision

Come to think of it. Where are all the red dwarf, black hole collisions?

Both red dwarf, black hole and white dwarf, black hole collisions ought to be oodles more frequent than collisions involving neutron stars.

Wouldn’t they be less dense the stars that is

Cymek said:

mollwollfumble said:

Tau.Neutrino said:

So, now we have…

Black hole, black hole collision.

Neutron star, neutron star collision

Black hole, neutron star collision.

And unknown, unknown collision

Come to think of it. Where are all the red dwarf, black hole collisions?

Both red dwarf, black hole and white dwarf, black hole collisions ought to be oodles more frequent than collisions involving neutron stars.

Wouldn’t they be less dense the stars that is

With white dwarfs, they can be plenty dense.

And as you go down the brightness scale with red dwarfs they get more dense. Denser than pure platinum for example.

The heaviest neutron star is about 2.1 solar masses, but they can go down to 0.9 solar masses if not lower.
The heaviest white dwarf is about 1.2 solar masses, going down to a lightest of 0.15 solar masses.
The heaviest red dwarf is about 0.8 solar masses.

So at about 0.8 solar masses a star can be either a neutron star, white dwarf or red dwarf.
The amount by which it spirals in when paired with a black hole to produce gravitationa waves really depends mostly on the mass which is similar for the three types of stars.