X-ray & Optical Images of XT2
These images show the location of an event, discovered by Chandra, that likely signals the merger of two neutron stars. Unlike other neutron star mergers, this one was not observed as a gamma-ray burst. Included are a wide field of view shows a Hubble optical image of a portion of the Chandra Deep Field-South field, and a smaller field of view that shows the Chandra image focusing only on the source dubbed XT2. A bright burst of X-rays in XT2 could give astronomers fresh insight into how neutron stars — dense stellar objects packed mainly with neutrons — are built.
Credit: X-ray: NASA/CXC/Uni. of Science and Technology of China/Y. Xue et al; Optical: NASA/STScI