Chinese team then conducted immediate follow-up on the gravitational waves source GW170817 in the nearby galaxy NGC4993 all the way from Dome A in Antarctica, using a fully-robotic telescope called AST3.
"Thanks to the optical detection of GW170817, reported from the AST3-2 telescope and at other southern telescopes, a day after its detection by LIGO, scientists are now closer to answering that question with a fascinating story of binary stellar evolution," Australian astronomer Jeremy Mould said in an article Glittering prospects at Dome A.
The electromagnetic afterglow decays very quickly. "Most observatories have to wait for the next night to observe the decaying light signal. Only the global Las Cumbres network and the Chinese Antarctic observatories are in a favorable position to quickly seek the afterglow signals," said Sanders, project manager of Thirty Meter Telescope Project (TMT).
"This bold Chinese observatory was able to catch the signal quickly and even measure the amount of highly excited matter ejected quickly from the coalescence," Sanders told Xinhua, adding that the exciting accomplishment shows that "the gamble to locate in Antarctica has paid off handsomely."
MORE PRIZES AHEAD
"If I were to name the new era, I would call it the era of the dark universe. That is why, when China announces (hopefully sometime later this year) the Kunlun Dark Universe Survey Telescope, it will be such a pioneering step," Mould said.
【国内英语资讯:Spotlight: From theory prediction to bold observatory, Chinese researchers help usher in new】相关文章:
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