NO CORRELATION BETWEEN FERMI GBM SIGNAL AND GW150914

Image: Merging black holes. Credit: NASA

Recently it has been suggested that electromagnetic signals detected by Fermi GBM could be associated with the merger of the two black holes detected by LIGO (GW150914).

In a recent paper (Lyutikov 2016) the author assesses that the physical constraints required by the association of the Fermi GBM signal contemporaneous with GW150914 - radiative power of 10⁴⁹ erg s⁻¹, and corresponding magnetic fields on the black hole of the order of 10¹² Gauss - are astrophysically highly implausible.

Combined with the relatively high random probability of coincidence of 0.22 percents, he concludes that the electromagnetic signal is likely unrelated to the BH merger.

Lyutikov 2016 (preprint) - Fermi GBM signal contemporaneous with GW150914 - an unlikely association (arXiv)

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‘Monster’ Planet Discovery Challenges Formation Theory

Artist’s illustration of a "hot Jupiter". Image Credit: NASA/CXC/M. Weiss A new research presents the discovery of NGTS-1b, a hot-Jupiter transiting an early M-dwarf host in a P~2.6 days orbit discovered as part of the Next Generation Transit Survey (NGTS). The planet has a mass of M~0.8 M(jupiter) making it the most massive planet ever discovered transiting an M-dwarf. NGTS-1b is the third transiting giant planet found around an M-dwarf, reinforcing the notion that close-in gas giants can form and migrate similar to the known population of hot Jupiters around solar type stars. The existence of the 'monster' planet, 'NGTS-1b', challenges theories of planet formation which state that a planet of this size could not be formed around such a small star. According to these theories, small stars can readily form rocky planets but do not gather enough material together to form Jupiter-sized planets. Such massive planets were not thought to exist ar...

ORBITAL PERIODS OF THE PLANETS

For orbital period generally we refer to the sidereal period, that is the temporal cycle that it takes an object to make a full orbit, relative to the stars. This is the orbital period in an inertial (non-rotating) frame of reference (365,25 days for the earth).

CONSTRAINTS ON THE LOCATION OF A POSSIBLE 9TH PLANET

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