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Tidal Disruption Events

Gezari, Suvi

The concept of stars being tidally ripped apart and consumed by a massive black hole (MBH) lurking in the center of a galaxy first captivated theorists in the late 1970s. The observational evidence for these rare but illuminating phenomena for probing otherwise dormant MBHs first emerged in archival searches of the soft X-ray ROSAT All-Sky Survey …

First Multimessenger Observations of a Neutron Star Merger

Chornock, Ryan; Margutti, Raffaella

We describe the first observations of the same celestial object with gravitational waves and light. GW170817 was the first detection of a neutron star merger with gravitational waves. The detection of a spatially coincident weak burst of gamma-rays (GRB 170817A) 1.7 s after the merger constituted the first electromagnetic detection of a gravitatio…

New Insights into Classical Novae

Chomiuk, Laura; Shen, Ken J.; Metzger, Brian D.

We survey our understanding of classical novae-nonterminal, thermonuclear eruptions on the surfaces of white dwarfs in binary systems. The recent and unexpected discovery of GeV gamma rays from Galactic novae has highlighted the complexity of novae and their value as laboratories for studying shocks and particle acceleration. We review half a cent…