The Observatories of the Carnegie Institution for Science, 813 Santa Barbara Street, Pasadena, CA 91101, USA.
Institute for Astronomy, University of Hawai'i, 2680 Woodlawn Drive, Honolulu, HI 96822, USA.
Science. 2017 Dec 22;358(6370):1570-1574. doi: 10.1126/science.aaq0049. Epub 2017 Oct 16.
On 17 August 2017, gravitational waves (GWs) were detected from a binary neutron star merger, GW170817, along with a coincident short gamma-ray burst, GRB 170817A. An optical transient source, Swope Supernova Survey 17a (SSS17a), was subsequently identified as the counterpart of this event. We present ultraviolet, optical, and infrared light curves of SSS17a extending from 10.9 hours to 18 days postmerger. We constrain the radioactively powered transient resulting from the ejection of neutron-rich material. The fast rise of the light curves, subsequent decay, and rapid color evolution are consistent with multiple ejecta components of differing lanthanide abundance. The late-time light curve indicates that SSS17a produced at least ~0.05 solar masses of heavy elements, demonstrating that neutron star mergers play a role in rapid neutron capture (r-process) nucleosynthesis in the universe.
2017 年 8 月 17 日，从双中子星合并事件 GW170817 中探测到引力波（GWs），并伴随有一个同时发生的短伽马射线暴 GRB 170817A。随后，一个光学暂现源 Swope 超新星巡天 17a（SSS17a）被确定为该事件的对应体。我们呈现了 SSS17a 的紫外、光学和红外光曲线，时间范围从合并后 10.9 小时到 18 天。我们约束了由富含中子物质抛射引起的放射性驱动的暂现源。光曲线的快速上升、随后的衰减和快速的颜色演化与不同的镧系元素丰度的多个抛射物成分一致。晚期光曲线表明，SSS17a 产生了至少 ~0.05 个太阳质量的重元素，这表明中子星合并在宇宙中的快速中子捕获（r 过程）核合成中发挥了作用。
