Charles D. Kilpatrick

TL;DR: A measurement of the Hubble constant is reported that combines the distance to the source inferred purely from the gravitational-wave signal with the recession velocity inferred from measurements of the redshift using the electromagnetic data.

TL;DR: A rapid astronomical search located the optical counterpart of the neutron star merger GW170817 and shows how these observations can be explained by an explosion known as a kilonova, which produces large quantities of heavy elements in nuclear reactions.

TL;DR: In this paper, the authors present ultraviolet, optical, and infrared light curves of SSS17a extending from 10.9 hours to 18 days post-merger, showing that the late-time light curve indicates that SSS 17a 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.

TL;DR: 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.

TL;DR: In this article, the authors reported time-series spectroscopy of SSS17a from 11.75 hours until 8.5 days after the merger, and measured the photosphere cooling from 11, 000 − 900 + 3400 to 9300 − 300 + 300 kelvin and determined a photospheric velocity of roughly 30% of the speed of light.