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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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 😂
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We so should! Now we need to find one that takes longer to rotate than the full LOTR marathon 👀
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Pulsars are amazing! The fastest one makes 716 full rotations per second! That's like a city the size of Sydney or Melbourne spinning 716 times per second 😱
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The Conversation is great! Glad I could bring it to your attention 🙂
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Adding this as the next major science goal for VAST... 📝
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Another great article about this discovery by ABC News Australia: www.abc.net.au/news/science... 🔭🧪
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This object was discovered by @elenchically.bsky.social and investigated by PhD student Yu Wing (Joshua) Lee and @manishacaleb.bsky.social, you can read the full paper here: www.nature.com/articles/s41...
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Happy late birthday to Max! 🎉
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It's a beautiful perspective on the universe!
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I can't even 😭
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Absolutely! The telescopes that take nice pictures get lots of PR, but Gaia has opened up a universe of science possibilities
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Gaia, and the data releases the Gaia team has worked so hard on, has had a humongous impact on astronomy. I use Gaia data constantly, without it, our Sydney Radio Star Catalogue would have been much smaller and much less useful
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The purple is fab! I don't think it's specific to us 🤔 i usually use a colour map like "plasma" or "viridis" rather than a single colour one (unless it's just grey scale). But this supernova remnant looks great in purple!
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It's just so pretty! 😍
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It certainly is! Merry Christmas 🎄
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And it's fabulous to be here while JWST is revealing so much beauty and science!