More than 4,000 astronomers on Monday revealed the first-ever detection of two neutron stars colliding in space. Such objects are the skeletons of massive stars that have cataclysmically exploded, leaving behind a core so dense that just a teaspoon's worth can weigh billions of tons. When the two neutron stars spiraled into each other, they created ripples in the fabric of space called gravitational waves. Special instruments on Earth later "heard" those murmurs from 130 million light-years away — allowing an army of astronomers to zero in on the crash and study it in unprecedented detail on August 17. Among ... (full story)