How would a nearby kilonova look on camera?

Nihar Gupte; Imre Bartos

doi:10.1119/10.0001193

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arXiv · 1905.01594

How would a nearby kilonova look on camera?

Nihar Gupte·Imre Bartos

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Abstract

Kilonovae are cosmic optical flashes produced in the aftermath of the merger of two neutron stars. While the typical radiant flux of a kilonova can be as high as $10^{34}$\,W, they typically occur at cosmological distances, requiring meter-class or larger telescopes for their observation. Here we explore how a kilonova would look like from Earth if it occurred in the Solar System's backyard, 1000 light years from Earth. This is a small distance on cosmological scales, with only one neutron-star merger expected to occur this close every 100,000,000 years. While humans will likely only see kilonovae at much greater distances, showing how such a nearby event would look on camera can help visualize these events, and demonstrate their unique spectral evolution.

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Nihar Gupte, Imre Bartos. 2019-05-05. How would a nearby kilonova look on camera?. https://doi.org/10.1119/10.0001193

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