Marcus Lower

New repeating FRB found by ASKAP and confirmed with MeerKAT!
#RadioAstronomy #Astronomy

www.astronomerstelegram.org?read=17257

An infographic titled "Why are there two LIGO observatories?" features a map of the United States showing two LIGO locations separated by 3000 km. Three key reasons are illustrated on the right: Noise Discrimination: Each detector is sensitive to local ground vibrations. If both were close together, they’d pick up the same environmental noise, making it difficult to distinguish true gravitational waves. By comparing data from distant locations, LIGO can filter out local noise and isolate real gravitational wave signals. Signal Timing: Gravitational waves travel at the speed of light, so any signal detected at both sites with a time difference of over 10 milliseconds can be ruled out as a real wave. This time-based filtering helps validate detections. Source Localization: With two detectors, LIGO can begin to narrow down the area in the sky where a wave originated. Adding more detectors (like Virgo in Italy) greatly improves localization. This was crucial during the 2017 detection of a neutron star collision, where combined data allowed astronomers to quickly identify the galaxy that emitted both gravitational and electromagnetic signals, leading to the most observed astronomical event in history.

Why are there two LIGO observatories?

LIGO has two detectors ~3000 km apart for three main reasons:
🎧 Noise discrimination
⏰ Signal timing
🗺️ Source localization

Find out more www.ligo.caltech.edu/page/ligo-de...

Graphic by Mayara Pacheco 🔭🧪

Picture of a large group of Australian radio astronomers on the stage at the SKAO 2025 meeting.

Incredible showing from Australians past, present and future, at #SKAO2025 in Görlitz.

All very excited about getting the first data from the SKAO telescopes!

Aussie, Aussie, Aussie!

#RadioAstronomy

One of the more interesting conference venues!
#SKAO2025 #RadioAstronomy

Even managed to find some (VERY) good coffee! ☕️

Been a good couple of days in Germany so far

Title slide for a presentation. Background shows two pulsars surrounded by donut-shaped magnetic fields with beams of light emanating from above their magnetic poles. A distorted grid with ripples radiating away from the pulsars is shown behind them. Title text says “Shining a light through a neutron star magnetosphere”.

Sneak preview of what I’ll be talking about at the upcoming SKA Science Meeting in sunny Görlitz next week!!
#RadioAstronomy #DoublePulsarIsTheBestPulsar

Burn it with (pulsar) fire!!

A plain croissant sitting on a white ceramic plate, next to a cup of filter coffee

A cup of filter coffee with a card explaining the kind of beans used to make it. Card says “Uganda Wine Process — Single origin, Ethiopia / Anaerobic natural guji, uraga, oromia — Winey, berry candied fruits, chocolate

Coffee days ☕️

Wasn’t Sputnik 2 the first all-canine spaceflight…?

We’ve looked with Murriyang (the 64-m Parkes radio telescope) at 8-9 GHz, and still didn’t see any pulses from the object in the Snake. SKA-Mid should detect or rule out pulsed emission when it comes online in ~3-5 years.

Not-so fun fact: we looked *really* hard for pulses from the alleged pulsar in the Snake, and didn’t find any…

BUT we did find a millisecond pulsar embedded in different filament right next door! ☄️🔭

iopscience.iop.org/article/10.3...

Infographic about the exoplanet K2-18b and its discovery with Kepler

So I know folks have heard the news about an exoplanet that might be “teeming with life”? 🌱

I created a series of infographics that aims to cover the key points of the research findings + some of the area where scientists are sceptical! 🧐

Meet K2-18b! 👋

#astronomy #exoplanet #scicomm

Twinkling star reveals the shocking secrets of turbulent plasma in our cosmic neighbourhood

For the first time, astronomers have measured the plasma layers of a shock wave surrounding a pulsar.

Go work at the most beautiful telescope in the world!

I’d seriously consider applying myself if I hadn’t just started a fellowship…

Hmm, that’s disappointing. And kinda strange that a standard interface to big template banks doesn’t exist…

Question to any stellar spectroscopy people on here: when you report that a star is of a particular spectral class based on a template bank, what did you actually do to figure that out??

Is it all just vibes and eyeballing things? Or is there a standard tool that nobody references? 🔭☄️

Some of them are perhaps “young at heart” as opposed to genuinely young pulsars 😄

Two panel plot. Upper diagram shows a squiggly line, representing how fast a pulsar is spinning down over time. Lower diagram shows changes in the observed radio emission as different colours.

Plot of pulsar spin period and spin-down rate. The black dots represent the pulsars that were looked at in this study.

Many squiggly black lines, representing the variable spin-down rates of many pulsars

Plot of many points, demonstrating the correlation between pulsar spin-down rates, and how variable their spin-down is over time. Different coloured points come from different studies, with the dark blue of this study dominating the diagram. A pink trace and shaded region represents a power-law fit to the data

Turns out the radio emission and spin-down rates of pulsars aren’t anywhere near as stable as we like to think! And it could even explain the “weirdness” seen in the apparent gravitational-wave background signal!!

Results from the Parkes Young Pulsar Timing programme: doi.org/10.1093/mnra...

🔭🧪☄️

I’d love to know which universities are promising continuing positions for DECRA recipients! My institute was crystal clear that they wouldn’t commit to anything beyond the 3 year fellowship, not even a 1-2 year extension. And I know of at least one case of a university reneging on such a promise

Has there been any clarification as to what an “embedded fellowship” actually is?
Is it just a glorified postdoc where the ECR is still expected to work on projects set out by the PI? Or would the ECR be free to work on whatever they propose? (i.e, like in actual “fellowships”)

Serious question: why would an ECR apply for a two-year “embedded fellowship” over longer (3-4 year) programs elsewhere? Especially when a good chunk of that second year will be spent hunting for the next job opportunity?

The Role of Serendipity in Scientific Discovery Join us for an engaging public lecture as we celebrate Professor Matthew Bailes, recipient of the 2024 Prime Minister’s Prize for Science!

Join us as we celebrate Professor Matthew Bailes, recipient of the 2024 Prime Minister’s Prize for Science - The Role of Serendipity in Scientific Discovery!
Date: 3rd April | Time: 5:30 PM - 6:30 PM
Venue: AMDC301, Swinburne University
Register Now: www.eventbrite.com.au/e/the-role-o...

When is the line?

We are looking for an Observatory Manager to lead the team at Parkes Observatory. Yes, come work at Murriyang, otherwise known as The Dish. #radioastronomy

jobs.csiro.au/job/Parkes%2...

Photograph of a computer screen with many windows open, some of which show colourful squiggly lines indicating how well a radio telescope is performing.

Colourful radio image containing an extended fuzzy blob near the bottom and a faint point near the upper-middle.

And the pulsar astronomer becomes a radio-imaging astronomer!

First time running my own observation with ATCA and making an image from the data 😄

Can you spot the pulsar?

#Astronomy #RadioAstronomy

That bird is an adorable menace! Will steal chips and even entire fish fillets right off your plate if you’re not paying attention!!

Tiny Yet Impactful Clues to Unlocking Cosmic Mysteries Have you ever imagined that something tiny in the universe could significantly impact its evolution and reveal hidden cosmic phenomena?

🌌 Ever wondered how tiny particles like neutrinos & neutron stars shape the universe? Join us on 21 Feb at 5:30 pm for Tiny yet impactful clues to unlocking cosmic mysteries with PhD students Pratyasha & Nimas. Free event! www.eventbrite.com.au/e/tiny-yet-i...
🔭 #SpaceScience #OzGrav

BURSTT BURSTT is a unique fisheye radio software telescope in Taiwan dedicated to finding mysterious fast radio bursts (FRBs)

Allow me to introduce you to BURSTT!

www.burstt.org

Best of luck!!