astrolaura.com
Radio astronomer and science communicator at the University of Sydney. Die hard Melbourne demons fan. Opinions are my own. www.astrolaura.com
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It's great, isn't it! The different science feeds are so good
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I wrote this article as we headed into the Australian summer last year, but the same rules apply for winter! And of course, the days are getting longer for our northern hemisphere friends 🌞
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ESA and the Gaia team have done a wonderful job publicising and sharing Gaia, but it doesn't quite have the same hook when it's lots of fabulous measurements rather than lots of fabulous images
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Purely anecdotal, but I do a lot of science communication and I'm often asked about JWST and Hubble, but I've never been asked unprompted about Gaia. In astronomy, Gaia has had an astronomical (pun intended) impact. But it doesn't have quite the general appeal of beautiful space images
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Thank you! And you're right, I don't get to choose titles but I do probably influence them with my writing
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And so much more data to be released too 😊
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The data set is so amazing too! A testament to a lot of hard work by a lot of people, and a lot of observing by one space telescope 🙌
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Truly a game-changer!
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@operations.esa.int live posted on here about the shut down last Thursday the 27th of March, head over there to learn more!
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It's amazing, and still more to come! I use it almost everyday, so grateful to Gaia!
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In case you can't listen, you can read about it instead! www.abc.net.au/news/science... 🧪🔭
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Looking forward to hearing about your research, Rami!
It's annoying how illogical brains can be about these things, i can never get my own brain to listen to me either!
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I'll be talking all about how black holes aren't holes, radio isn't sound, and pulsars don't pulse... and why all of that is important to know as we build the Square Kilometre Array, the biggest telescope in the world! 📡
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That would be fun! A bit of a moon race like in 2023 🪐🌚
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Happy to help! Knowing the number of moons is key information when choosing a favourite planet 🪐
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The best kind of rabbit hole! 🐰
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Black holes, white dwarfs, and pulsars! Compact objects are always doing something fun 🌟
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You can check out the journal article in Nature Astronomy: www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Awesome work by Iris and everyone who worked on this! 🌟
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This was also where I learned that radio is an international field. I did another summer research project 6 months after this, in The Netherlands. Later, I did both my masters and PhD overseas. And now I'm a professional radio astronomer! 😎📡
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🥰 thanks so much, Jayde!!!
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It's much more likely (scientists have a hard time talking in absolutes) that they're caused by some interesting, extreme physics. We love not knowing things! It just means that there's more to learn
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Then as observations do or don't match what's predicted, those theories evolve. With some theories not working out at all, others remaining "in the game", and new theories emerging along the way. Like what's in this new work, every clue guides us to working out what's going on
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We don't currently know, but "speculation" isn't really the right word either. There are many papers that take the observational evidence and theorise what could explain what we observe. They then make predictions on what we would expect to see if their theory were correct
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My pleasure! It's very cool to see such amazing research being done right here in Australia
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They do! The current theories for how FRBs are made mostly involve neutron stars. Those are extremely dense, small stars left over after massive stars explode as supernovae
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Oh damn! But on the other hand, gives me a chance to try and make that acronym work for my research 🤔😆
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Defs not aliens, but it's fun to imagine that FRBs are from aliens! 👽🪐
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These ones are defs not aliens, but I like to think that aliens probably have pets too!
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It is a great achievement! Lots of new research to be done 🌟
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As the old astronomy saying goes, "it's not aliens" 😂👽 but if it were aliens, I'm sure they'd know that there are plenty of other nice space rocks out there
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You can read the journal article open access on the ArXiv here: arxiv.org/abs/2409.10316 and the peer-reviewed version in the Publications of the Astronomical Society of Australia
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Thank you! It was lots of fun to look into, and a nice, positive result! 🌟
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The universe is expanding when averaged over very big scales. On smaller (but still pretty big from a human perspective) scales, the local gravity is what matters. So the Solar System is not expanding, good news for us!
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It's my pleasure! Plus that's how you make sure you're wishing on a star and not a planet: planets don't twinkle 🪐🌟
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That's true, since the universe is so big, it's easy to hear something like this and think it's factual
I'd love to see a supernova in our Galaxy in our lifetime! Just not a star that's too close 😅
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No wishing on supernovae! 😆 luckily they're a *lot* tougher to see by-eye
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Haha the typo is strong with this one 😂