For the first time, astrophysicists detect a black hole swallowing a neutron star
Once upon a time, in a galaxy far, far away, a black hole swallowed a neutron star. Then, 10 days later, another black hole ate up another star. The two separate events triggered ripples through time and space that eventually hit Earth. Those ripples, first detected in January 2020, offered researchers two distinct looks at the never-before-measured cosmic collisions, according to research published Tuesday in the academic publication The Astrophysical Journal Letters. "This is the first detection of a merger between a black hole and neutron star," said Chase Kimball, a Northwestern University graduate student and one of the study's co-authors. "The black holes swallowed the neutron stars, making bigger black holes." Astrophysicists have previously observed two black holes colliding with two neutron stars in separate events, but never the two paired togThe black hole-neutron star collision provides a glimpse into how cataclysmic cosmic explosions impact the exp...
