Compact Binary Mergers

Compact binary mergers occur when two dense stellar remnants—such as black holes or neutron stars—spiral towards each other and collide due to gravitational attraction. These objects are extremely dense, packing mass comparable to our Sun into a city-sized sphere. As they orbit closer, they emit gravitational waves—ripples in spacetime—and eventually merge, releasing enormous energy. The resulting event can produce a new black hole or neutron star and often generates detectable signals across gravitational and electromagnetic spectra, providing insights into extreme physics, the behavior of matter under intense gravity, and the origins of heavy elements.