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Summary
When two neutron stars orbit one another, they form what is known as a binary neutron star. As a result of the effect that gravitational waves has on them, the two stars will spend the entirety of their lives together; in time spiralling inwards from the force of gravitational radiation. Eventually, the binary will begin to grow precipitately unstable until both stars launch themselves at one another, and it is from this collision that one of three outcomes will be produced:
The first is that when they merge, they will join together to form a more massive neutron star; the second is, should the mass of their combined remnants be greater than the Tolman-Oppenheimer-Volkoff limit, their merger will result in the formation of a black hole; the third and final outcome is the rarest. In this scenario, their unification will create what is known as a kilonova, emitting a short gamma-ray burst with a duration of under two seconds. In the end, each of these outcomes will always have one thing in common: a lifetime they will have spent together, yet it is only as they draw their dying breaths that finally they meet.
Series
- Part 1 of The Quantum Mechanics of You and I