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On 16 October 2017, the LIGO and Virgo collaborations announced the first ever detection of gravitational waves originating from the coalescence of a binary neutron star system. The observation of the [[GW170817]] transient, which occurred on 17 August 2017, allowed for constraining the masses of the neutron stars involved between 0.86 and 2.26 solar masses. Further analysis allowed a greater restriction of the mass values to the interval 1.17–1.60 solar masses, with the total system mass measured to be 2.73–2.78 solar masses. The inclusion of the Virgo detector in the observation effort allowed for an improvement of the localization of the source by a factor of 10. This in turn facilitated the electromagnetic follow-up of the event. In contrast to the case of binary black hole mergers, binary neutron star mergers were expected to yield an electromagnetic counterpart, that is, a light signal associated with the event. A gamma-ray burst ([[GRB 170817A]]) was detected by the [[Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope]], occurring 1.7 seconds after the gravitational wave transient. The signal, originating near the galaxy [[NGC 4993]], was associated with the neutron star merger. This was corroborated by the electromagnetic follow-up of the event ([[AT 2017gfo]]), involving 70 telescopes and observatories and yielding observations over a large region of the electromagnetic spectrum which further confirmed the neutron star nature of the merged objects and the associated [[kilonova]].<ref name="PhysRev119"/><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.ligo.caltech.edu/page/press-release-gw170817|title=GW170817 Press Release|website=LIGO Lab {{!}} Caltech|access-date=2017-10-17}}</ref>
== Dispute ==
Scientists including Fang Zhouzi have questioned the existence of gravitational waves. This doubt subsided slightly after the U.S. bow and force wave detection won the Nobel Prize in physics, but it has not completely disappeared.
If the unification of the four interactions in nature (commonly called the grand unification theory or theory of everything) is completed without introducing the hypothesis of gravitational waves (for example, gravity is instantaneous). Then, the existence of gravitational waves is completely untenable. This explanation is completely correct in logic. Therefore, the opinion of questioning the existence of gravitational waves should be taken seriously.
==In fiction==
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