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NANJING, Oct. 16-- Chinese scientists on Monday announced observation of the "optical counterpart" of gravitational waves coming from the merger of two binary neutron stars using a survey telescope in Antarctica. The gravitational waves were first discovered by the U.S.-based Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO) detectors on Aug. 17. The Chinese telescope independently observed optical signals resulting from the merger the next day, among some 70 telescopes on the ground or from space across the world, according to the Chinese Center for Antarctic Astronomy. It was the first time humans have detected gravitational waves and the corresponding electromagnetic phenomena resulting from a binary neutron star merger. Data exclusively collected by the Chinese detector has led to a preliminary estimate of the ejecta parameters, according to Wang Lifan, director of the center. The merging process ejected radioactive material with more than 3,000 times the mass of the Earth at a speed of up to 30 percent the speed of light, Wang said. A merger of black holes with an extremely strong gravitational field can not generate ejecta or electromagnetic phenomena, according to Wu Xuefeng, a researcher with the Purple Mountain Observatory of the Chinese Academy of Sciences. However, the collision of binary neutron stars is accompanied by a series of electromagnetic phenomena that are crucial to research in origins of heavy elements like platinum and gold. | 
