Multi-messenger astrophysics

The recent detection of a gravitational wave from a binary neutron star by the LIGO/VIRGO collaboration was followed by observation with space and ground-based telescopes in addition to neutrinos and cosmic-ray detectors, opening the new era of exploring the Universe through all its known messengers. The observations involved thousands of scientists from different instruments and backgrounds: high energy space and ground-based instruments and neutrino detectors observed simultaneously to optical and radio telescopes. The electromagnetic counterpart of the gravitational waves created by this merger produced a kilonova, a transient phenomenon that was successfully observed from gamma rays to radio and its afterglow may be still detected at very high resolution with VLBI. Many astrophysical phenomena, such as transient event, can now be observed through different messengers giving us the opportunity to obtain a more complete picture of their enigmatic emission mechanisms. Goal of ASTERICS is to bring together astronomers and (astro)particle physicists to cooperate on technological progress and common challenges of multi-messenger science.