When neutron stars collide | Michelle Thaller

NASA’s Michelle Thaller explains what happens when the densest stars in the galaxy collide.
❍ Subscribe to The Well on RUclips: bit.ly/welcometothewell
❍ Up next: Solving Stephen Hawking’s famous paradox • Solving Stephen Hawkin...
NASA astronomer Michelle Thaller talks about a heavy subject matter: neutron stars. These dead stars are so dense that just one teaspoonful of neutron star matter would equal the mass of Mount Everest.
Two neutron stars in orbit around each other will eventually collide, and when they do, they create ripples in the fabric of spacetime. Thanks to LIGO, the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory, scientists can detect these gravitational ripples by detecting disturbances in laser light.
Albert Einstein correctly predicted the existence of gravitational waves in his theory of general relativity, 100 years before astrophysicists first detected them.
Read the full video transcript: bigthink.com/the-well/what-ha...
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
❍ About The Well ❍
Do we inhabit a multiverse? Do we have free will? What is love? Is evolution directional? There are no simple answers to life’s biggest questions, and that’s why they’re the questions occupying the world’s brightest minds.
So what do they think?
How is the power of science advancing understanding? How are philosophers and theologians tackling these fascinating questions?
Let’s dive into The Well.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Join The Well on your favorite platforms:
❍ Facebook: bit.ly/thewellFB
❍ Instagram: bit.ly/thewellIG

[@leshay5258]

Very well presented video. Good explanation in a nutshell and understandable for a layman like me. Thank you.

[@The-Well]

So glad you liked it! Thank you for watching!

[@robinhannon3488]

More Michelle Thaller videos please.

[@tiimmyvegas4974]

Love her. She’s amazing

[@user-gk9lg5sp4y]

I first saw Michelle on cable documentaries in the 2000s. Love her ability to explain complex science and her obvious enthusiasm.

[@rwarren58]

Michelle Thaller ! It’s about time! She’s the best.🚀❤

[@marchbox]

Miss Orbital Path so much!!! So nice to hear her voice again!

[@richardhoover4471]

Michelle Thraller is an excellent host for these videos. She is able to excite the viewer while not burying them in the extreme intricacies of scientific methodologies.

[@The-Well]

Couldn't agree more! She's brilliant!

[@kagannasuhbeyoglu]

How is science done? This is a perfect example.
Respect...🙋

[@PoitinCZ]

Fabulous, thanks as always. (sorry to be slightly trivial, but genuine question, has Michelle removed her tattoos? Can't see them in the vid.?)

[@CuriousChick]

this COULD BE an older video (from the past) uploaded again & published as new? even her hair looks like from before 2020.. I don't see her tats. I have a hunch it's an old vid.

[@PoitinCZ]

@@CuriousChick thanks a lot for that info!

[@Slitherpy]

What a treasure for humanity

[@bluesque9687]

You mean Ligo? Or Neutron stars? Or this youtube channel?

[@Slitherpy]

@@bluesque9687 I meant ✨ Michelle ✨

[@brolysujay]

She is an amazing story teller

[@The-Well]

Truly! She's captivating!

[@prakash_77]

Incredible explanation 👏

[@The-Well]

Glad you liked it! Thanks for watching!

[@charlespaynter3612]

Afterskool needs to do a video with this woman.

[@quinnswanson8658]

Wonderful

[@cdorman11]

I was hoping something would be said about its role in the creation of transferric elements, since supernovae don't have the neutrons to make them stable.

[@neilc4544]

Every time I listen to Michelle Thaller, I get into a zone, and at the end of it, I realise how I have wasted my life.

[@barbarareid7514]

Hear you

[@garbagebin3693]

Us bro us 😭 I listened to her in 2018 and since then I'm dealing with existential Crisis 💀

[@booJay]

NDT self-proclaims himself to be everyone's personal astrophysicist, but Michelle Thaller is mine.

[@The-Well]

She's brilliant, isn't she? 💡

[@booJay]

@@The-Well absolutely! You can tell she's such a kind person. I know she's been through a lot.

[@robinhannon3488]

Mine too now that Carl is no longer with us.

[@master00booya]

Tell ‘em

[@souravbhattacharya4188]

Hi Michelle. Why does it happen that only supermassive black holes face the final parsec problem and the neutron stars and stellar black holes not?

[@villadeste23]

:) I saw many of them , in the mountain side

[@JehovahsaysNetworth]

@The-Well When Two galaxies collide the two galaxies fall into a Magnetic vortex at the velocity of space time evaporation condensation and precipitation forming a new galaxy of clouds.

[@bluesque9687]

So what if two super massive black holes collide?

[@cdorman11]

Gravitational waves? Yes to both
Electromagnetic waves? No to black holes (except from surrounding matter outside the event horizons--not dense, so undetectable from far away)
Results in black hole? Not always for neutron stars
And the gravitational waves of colliding black holes would be simpler--more of a clean 'chirp'--since matter distortion wouldn't be a confounding factor.

[@PaulSmith-wz2xv]

Science can be so complex that we mortals grasp at the straw men of the religions.

[@birdie8085]

I think Neil degrasse Tyson is a male version of Thaller.

[@hansOrf]

Say "in space and time itself" again, i dare you.