NASA | Colliding Neutron Stars Create Black Hole and Gamma-ray Burst

Armed with state-of-the-art supercomputer models, scientists have shown that colliding neutron stars can produce the energetic jet required for a gamma-ray burst. Earlier simulations demonstrated that mergers could make black holes. Others had shown that the high-speed particle jets needed to make a gamma-ray burst would continue if placed in the swirling wreckage of a recent merger. Now, the simulations reveal the middle step of the process--how the merging stars’ magnetic field organizes itself into ou