# The Prelude - Neutron Star Binaries neutron stars form after a core collapse - spews out a bunch of neutrons so core collapse supernovae may have r-process elements neutron stars may be in binaries, orbiting each other, emitting gravitational wave mergers, producing loads of r-process elements (as a neutron star with expel much of its outer neutrons) into a surrounding cloud --> GRBs - explosions funky edition - known as **gamma ray bursts**, there are two types of burst - long GRBs and fast GRBs - there is a binomial distribution of GRBs when plotted with a logarithmic gamma ray burst scale with the frequency of bursts at specific times - short bursts: theorised to be from compact object mergers (neutron stars) - GRBs will release **jets** carrying away most of the energy - relativistic shell! 2003 long GRB detection - take spectrograph, showed us. dotted line is a supernova - spectra maps very, very well onto supernova ![[Pasted image 20230714094442.png]] 2017 short GRB detection: kilonova merger seen, created fast GRB ![[Pasted image 20230714094711.png]] diagram of ligo detection of gravitational waves when the kilonova occured