The orbital telescope "Fermi" found the source of gravitational waves detected by LIGO

The likely location of the GW150914 point (left) in the sky compared to the location of the gamma radiation source (right) (Figure: V. Connaughton)

As already reported on Geektimes, with the help of two LIGO detectors, scientists were able to capture gravitational waves. The source of these waves were two confluent black holes located approximately 1.3 billion light-years from Earth. Gravitational perturbations caused by the merger process are very strong, and this is one of the reasons that allowed people to catch gravitational waves.

The Fermi orbital telescope detected a weak burst of gamma radiation just 0.4 seconds after the gravitational waves were fixed by the LIGO detectors. The duration of the burst is about a second. Scientists believe that the likelihood that gamma radiation in this case is a consequence of the same black hole confluence that gave rise to gravitational perturbations is very high.

The gamma-ray burst is a large-scale cosmic burst of explosive energy, currently observed in distant galaxies in the hardest part of the electromagnetic spectrum. Gamma-Bursts (GW) are the brightest electromagnetic events occurring in the Universe. The duration of a typical HW is a few seconds, but it can last from milliseconds to an hour. The initial burst is usually followed by a long-lived “afterglow” emitted at longer wavelengths (X-ray, UV, optics, IR and radio).
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According to Valerie Connaughton from the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center (USA) and her team, who worked with the Fermi orbiting telescope, both events are probably related to each other. And this means that scientists, most likely, managed to find that point in the sky, where previously there were a couple of black holes that merged later. The telescope itself covers about 70% of the night sky of the Earth at any time. Knowing this, the scientists decided to check whether the telescope could not detect an increase in the level of gamma and X-rays, one of the consequences of the merging of black holes. And the expectations in this case were justified.

Immediately after the gravitational waves were recorded, scientists were able to indicate the approximate place in the sky of the southern hemisphere of the Earth, where the black holes merged. The indication of the location was approximate, as mentioned above, and captured a rather extensive band in the sky of 600 square degrees. After checking the data with the readings of the Fermi telescope, it turned out that the merger happened in the constellation Keith or Pisces. More accurately localize the place is not yet possible.