LOFAR's Big Catch: A Radio Flash from a Neutron Star Crash

Astronomers using LOFAR detected a short, coherent radio flash at 144 MHz, 76.6 minutes after observing a short gamma-ray burst (GRB) called GRB 201006A. The probability of finding an unrelated transient is less than 1 in a million and it is thus likely the radio counterpart to GRB 201006A. The discovery of this radio flash suggests that searches for similar emissions could be helpful for multi-messenger campaigns following neutron star mergers and associated gravitational wave events. Identifying coherent radio emission from a gravitational wave detection would significantly improve the localization of the event, enabling more precise follow-up observations. Publication: A. Rowlinson et al., "A candidate coherent radio flash following a neutron star merger", MNRAS stae2234 Acknowledgements: Illustration from ESO/A. Roquette. The podcast was produced with Google/NotebookLM