The merging of a neutron star with a black hole is described in detail for the first time

We are talking about two gravitational events GW200105 and GW200115. The first is a collision of a black hole with a mass of about

nine solar masses and a neutron star with 1.9the mass of the Sun and occurred at a distance of about 900 million light years from Earth. The second is the merger of a black hole with a mass six times that of a solar and a neutron star with 1.5 times the mass of the Sun - this happened about one billion light years from Earth.

Further observations of the regions of the sky where these pairs of black holes and neutron stars were supposed to be located indicated that the merger of these objects did not lead to the appearance of visible flashes of light.

Therefore, astronomers concluded that the black holes involved in the merger were large enough to swallow neutron stars entirely, rather than tear them apart.

Gravitational waves allowed us to detectthe merger of pairs of black holes and pairs of neutron stars, however, the mixed merger of a black hole with a neutron star was an elusive event. This piece of the big picture is crucial for many astrophysical models of the formation of compact objects and the evolution of binary systems.

Chase Kimball, one of the study participants

In theory, a small fraction of this matter can bedo not fall beyond the event horizon, which may result in a flash of light. Since astronomers did not notice such traces, it can be concluded that this happens relatively rarely.

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