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Optical Counterparts to Gravitational Waves (Kilonovae)

When detectors like LIGO/Virgo sense a gravitational wave (from a neutron star merger), they provide a "skymap"—a massive area of the sky where the event might have happened. Large professional telescopes have a narrow field of view and cannot scan this entire area quickly enough before the optical signal (the kilonova) fades.

  • The Solution: A distributed array of hundreds of amateur telescopes can "tile" the uncertainty region. Each telescope takes a small patch, and collectively they image the whole area in minutes.

  • Real-World Example: The Kilonova Catcher project (part of the GRANDMA collaboration) alerts amateur astronomers to image specific coordinates immediately after a gravitational wave trigger.

  • Source: GRANDMA Collaboration (Global Rapid Advanced Network Devoted to the Multi-messenger Addicts).

The Rubin observatory (or another one im forgetting already finds the counterpart but cannot observe it for a extneded period of time; kilonovae have high [[magnitude]] (low brightness) and hence require large scopes)

Kilonova Follow-up: Wide-field + coordination beats aperture. Error boxes are 100+ sq deg.

Tidal Disruption Events (TDEs) — Science Context (from Traniset events.md)

A Tidal Disruption Event occurs when a star passes too close to a supermassive black hole. The tidal gravity differential across the star spaghettifies it into a stream of gas. As this stellar material falls into the black hole, it heats to millions of degrees and releases a brilliant flare of X-rays and visible light lasting months.

Observational signature: A bright, slowly-rising then slowly-fading optical transient in the nucleus of a galaxy. Rise time weeks to months; decay over months to years. Distinguishable from AGN activity by their characteristic light curve shape (power-law decay).

Network relevance: TDEs are slow enough that they do not require immediate response, but their light curve coverage benefits from continuous multi-site monitoring. A TDE at redshift z<0.1 can be followed photometrically by amateur-class equipment. They are Rubin follow-up targets.

Reference: See Alert Ingestion Design.md for how TDE alerts from TNS would be ingested and prioritised.