Astronomers discovered a jet of particles that was emitted during the event GW170817 - a collision and merger of two neutron stars, which was recorded in August 2017. Although its own speed is only slightly less than the speed of light, the illusion arises for observers on Earth that the jet is traveling four times faster than light. This was reported in a press release from EurekAlert !.
The observations were carried out using the Very Long Baseline Array (VLBA) radio interferometer, an ultra-long baseline antenna array consisting of 10 radio telescopes. 75 days after the merger of neutron stars, scientists discovered a region emitting radio emission, and it was moving so fast that it could be explained by a jet - an ultrafast jet of plasma.
According to scientists, the jet is very narrow, it deviates only 20 degrees from the line connecting neutron stars and the Earth. The small angle causes the illusion of superluminal motion, but the jet's actual speed is very high, at over 97 percent of the speed of light.
