Abstract
On 17 August 2017, the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO) and the Virgo interferometer detected gravitational waves (GWs) emanating from a binary neutron star merger, GW170817. Nearly simultaneously, the Fermi and INTEGRAL (INTErnational Gamma-Ray Astrophysics Laboratory) telescopes detected a gamma-ray transient, GRB 170817A. At 10.9 hours after the GW trigger, we discovered a transient and fading optical source, Swope Supernova Survey 2017a (SSS17a), coincident with GW170817. SSS17a is located in NGC 4993, an S0 galaxy at a distance of 40 megaparsecs. The precise location of GW170817 provides an opportunity to probe the nature of these cataclysmic events by combining electromagnetic and GW observations.
| Original language | English (US) |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 1556-1558 |
| Number of pages | 3 |
| Journal | Science |
| Volume | 358 |
| Issue number | 6370 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - Dec 22 2017 |
Funding
We thank the LIGO Scientific Collaboration and the Virgo Collaboration, as well as all those who have contributed to GW science for enabling this discovery; J. McIver for alerting us to the LVC circular; J. Mulchaey (Carnegie Observatories director), L. Infante (Las Campanas Observatory director), and the entire Las Campanas staff for their extreme dedication, professionalism, and excitement, all of which were critical in the discovery of the first GW optical counterpart and its host galaxy, as well as the observations used in this study; I. Thompson and the Carnegie Observatory Time Allocation Committee for approving the Swope Supernova Survey and scheduling our program; and the University of Copenhagen, DARK Cosmology Centre, and the Niels Bohr International Academy for hosting D.A.C., R.J.F., A.M.-B., E.R.-R., and M.R.S. during the discovery of GW170817 and SSS17a. R.J.F., A.M.-B., and E.R.-R. were participating in the 2017 Kavli Summer Program in Astrophysics (“Astrophysics with gravitational wave detections”). This program was supported by the Kavli Foundation, the Danish National Research Foundation (DNRF), the Niels Bohr International Academy, and the DARK Cosmology Centre. The University of California, Santa Cruz (UCSC), group is supported in part by NSF grant AST– 1518052, the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, the Heising-Simons Foundation, generous donations from many individuals through a UCSC Giving Day grant, fellowships from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation (R.J.F.) and the David and Lucile Packard Foundation (R.J.F. and E.R.-R.), and the Niels Bohr Professorship from the DNRF (E.R.-R.). A.M.-B. acknowledges support from a UCMEXUS-CONACYT Doctoral Fellowship. M.R.D. is a Hubble and Carnegie-Dunlap Fellow and acknowledges support from the Dunlap Institute at the University of Toronto. B.F.M. is an unpaid visiting scientist at the University of Chicago and an occasional consultant to the NASA/IPAC Extragalactic Database (NED). J.X.P. is an affiliate member of the Institute for Physics and Mathematics of the Universe. J.D.S. acknowledges support from the Carnegie Institution for Science. Support for this work was provided by NASA through Hubble Fellowship grants HST-HF-51348.001 (B.J.S.) and HST-HF-51373.001 (M.R.D.), awarded by the Space Telescope Science Institute, which is operated for NASA by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy under contract NAS5–26555. This paper includes data gathered with the 6.5-m Magellan telescopes located at Las Campanas Observatory, Chile. This research has made use of the NED, which is operated by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, under contract with NASA. Figure 4A is based on observations made with the NASA/European Space Agency Hubble Space Telescope, obtained from the Data Archive at the Space Telescope Science Institute (https://archive.stsci.edu; program 14840), which is operated by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy under NASA contract NAS 5–26555. These observations are associated with program GO–14840. The data presented in this work and the code used to perform the analysis are available at https://ziggy.ucolick.org/sss17a/. We thank the LIGO Scientific Collaboration and the Virgo Collaboration, as well as all those who have contributed to GW science for enabling this discovery; J. McIver for alerting us to the LVC circular; J. Mulchaey (Carnegie Observatories director), L. Infante (Las Campanas Observatory director), and the entire Las Campanas staff for their extreme dedication, professionalism, and excitement, all of which were critical in the discovery of the first GW optical counterpart and its host galaxy, as well as the observations used in this study; I. Thompson and the Carnegie Observatory Time Allocation Committee for approving the Swope Supernova Survey and scheduling our program; and the University of Copenhagen, DARK Cosmology Centre, and the Niels Bohr International Academy for hosting D.A.C., R.J.F., A.M.-B., E.R.-R., and M.R.S. during the discovery of GW170817 and SSS17a. R.J.F., A.M.-B., and E.R.-R. were participating in the 2017 Kavli Summer Program in Astrophysics (?Astrophysics with gravitational wave detections?). This program was supported by the Kavli Foundation, the Danish National Research Foundation (DNRF), the Niels Bohr International Academy, and the DARK Cosmology Centre. The University of California, Santa Cruz (UCSC), group is supported in part by NSF grant AST?1518052, the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, the Heising-Simons Foundation, generous donations from many individuals through a UCSC Giving Day grant, fellowships from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation (R.J.F.) and the David and Lucile Packard Foundation (R.J.F. and E.R.-R.), and the Niels Bohr Professorship from the DNRF (E.R.-R.). A.M.-B. acknowledges support from a UCMEXUS-CONACYT Doctoral Fellowship. M.R.D. is a Hubble and Carnegie-Dunlap Fellow and acknowledges support from the Dunlap Institute at the University of Toronto. B.F.M. is an unpaid visiting scientist at the University of Chicago and an occasional consultant to the NASA/IPAC Extragalactic Database (NED). J.X.P. is an affiliate member of the Institute for Physics and Mathematics of the Universe. J.D.S. acknowledges support from the Carnegie Institution for Science. Support for this work was provided by NASA through Hubble Fellowship grants HST-HF-51348.001 (B.J.S.) and HST-HF-51373.001 (M.R.D.), awarded by the Space Telescope Science Institute, which is operated for NASA by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy under contract NAS5?26555. This paper includes data gathered with the 6.5-m Magellan telescopes located at Las Campanas Observatory, Chile. This research has made use of the NED, which is operated by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, under contract with NASA. Figure 4A is based on observations made with the NASA/European Space Agency Hubble Space Telescope, obtained from the Data Archive at the Space Telescope Science Institute (https://archive.stsci.edu; program 14840), which is operated by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy under NASA contract NAS 5?26555. These observations are associated with program GO?14840. The data presented in this work and the code used to perform the analysis are available at https://ziggy.ucolick.org/sss17a/.
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- General