Binary Neutron Star Merger (without magnetic fields)

This movie shows the final stages of the coalescence and the merging of two neutron stars. Neutron stars are dense objects created in certain supernova explosions, and concentrate around 1.5 solar masses inside a radius less than 20 km. The merger shown in the movie is happening much faster in reality, within less than a hundredth of a second. Such an event is producing strong gravitational waves of the type that the LIGO detectors are listening for. Matter ejected from merging neutron stars is the most likely source for the creation of heavy elements in the universe, such as gold. The outcome of the merger can be a black hole or a stable neutron star. In this case, a short-lived neutron star is produced that collapses quickly to a black hole. The white solid surfaces depict the surfaces of the two neutron stars and the merged object. The black hole is shown in yellow for better visibility. The movie also shows that the remnant is surrounded by a debris disk of hot plasma much denser than any matter on Earth. This disk is visualized as transparent layers.

This movie is based on the simulations described in T. Kawamura, B. Giacomazzo, W. Kastaun, R. Ciolfi, A. Endrizzi, L. Baiotti, and R. Perna, “Binary neutron star mergers and short gamma-ray bursts: Effects of magnetic field orientation, equation of state, and mass ratio”, Phys. Rev. D 94, 064012 (2016)

Acknowledgements: These results were obtained with the help of the following grants: PRACE grant GRSimStar (PI Giacomazzo), MIUR FIR grant No. RBFR13QJYF (PI Giacomazzo)

Visualisation: Wolfgang Kastaun; Simulation: T. Kawamura, B. Giacomazzo, W. Kastaun, R. Ciolfi, and A. Endrizzi

[aSpyIntheHaus]

That was awesome indeed! I am intrigued by what happens with the debris thrown out and left orbiting especially when you note that it is still very dense. I'd imagine that's because its still in an immense gravitational field. There must be some crazy interactions going on there.