> Details

Levan, Andrew J.; Gompertz, Benjamin P.; Salafia, Om Sharan; Bulla, Mattia; Burns, Eric; Hotokezaka, Kenta; Izzo, Luca; Lamb, Gavin P.; Malesani, Daniele B.; Oates, Samantha R.; Ravasio, Maria Edvige; Rouco Escorial, Alicia; Schneider, Benjamin; Sarin, Nikhil; Schulze, Steve; Tanvir, Nial R.; Ackley, Kendall; Anderson, Gemma; Brammer, Gabriel B.; Christensen, Lise; Dhillon, Vikram S.; Evans, Phil A.; Fausnaugh, Michael; Fong, Wen-fai; [...]

Heavy-element production in a compact object merger observed by JWST

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  • Media type: E-Article
  • Title: Heavy-element production in a compact object merger observed by JWST
  • Contributor: Levan, Andrew J.; Gompertz, Benjamin P.; Salafia, Om Sharan; Bulla, Mattia; Burns, Eric; Hotokezaka, Kenta; Izzo, Luca; Lamb, Gavin P.; Malesani, Daniele B.; Oates, Samantha R.; Ravasio, Maria Edvige; Rouco Escorial, Alicia; Schneider, Benjamin; Sarin, Nikhil; Schulze, Steve; Tanvir, Nial R.; Ackley, Kendall; Anderson, Gemma; Brammer, Gabriel B.; Christensen, Lise; Dhillon, Vikram S.; Evans, Phil A.; Fausnaugh, Michael; Fong, Wen-fai; [...]
  • imprint: Springer Science and Business Media LLC, 2024
  • Published in: Nature
  • Language: English
  • DOI: 10.1038/s41586-023-06759-1
  • ISSN: 0028-0836; 1476-4687
  • Origination:
  • Footnote:
  • Description: <jats:title>Abstract</jats:title><jats:p>The mergers of binary compact objects such as neutron stars and black holes are of central interest to several areas of astrophysics, including as the progenitors of gamma-ray bursts (GRBs)<jats:sup>1</jats:sup>, sources of high-frequency gravitational waves (GWs)<jats:sup>2</jats:sup> and likely production sites for heavy-element nucleosynthesis by means of rapid neutron capture (the <jats:italic>r</jats:italic>-process)<jats:sup>3</jats:sup>. Here we present observations of the exceptionally bright GRB 230307A. We show that GRB 230307A belongs to the class of long-duration GRBs associated with compact object mergers<jats:sup>4–6</jats:sup> and contains a kilonova similar to AT2017gfo, associated with the GW merger GW170817 (refs. <jats:sup>7–12</jats:sup>). We obtained James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) mid-infrared imaging and spectroscopy 29 and 61 days after the burst. The spectroscopy shows an emission line at 2.15 microns, which we interpret as tellurium (atomic mass <jats:italic>A</jats:italic> = 130) and a very red source, emitting most of its light in the mid-infrared owing to the production of lanthanides. These observations demonstrate that nucleosynthesis in GRBs can create <jats:italic>r</jats:italic>-process elements across a broad atomic mass range and play a central role in heavy-element nucleosynthesis across the Universe.</jats:p>