Damn. There really isn’t any replacement for Swift’s magnetar monitoring capabilities. Especially since NICER is also dead
Alexandra Witze@alexwitze.bsky.social · 2d agoThe Swift re-boost mission has failed. www.nasa.gov/news-release...
Marcus Lower
@astromelow.bsky.social
Astrophysicist | ARC DECRA Fellow at Swinburne | Timing pulsars & magnetars | Coffee enthusiast Website: https://mlower.github.io
Alexandra Witze@alexwitze.bsky.social · 2d ago
The first direct glimpse of vacuum birefringence has been claimed by astronomers who have studied a special type of neutron star. 🧪⚛️ ow.ly/Uota50ZArYu
Has vacuum birefringence been seen at long last? – Physics World
Polarized X-rays from magnetar could be first direct observation of quantum effect
ow.ly
Nature research paper: Vacuum birefringence and the polarized X-ray emission from a radio magnetar go.nature.com/4xmGdhk
Vacuum birefringence and the polarized X-ray emission from a radio magnetar - Nature
Polarization measurements of the magnetar 1E 1547.0−5408 provide strong evidence that vacuum birefringence shapes X-ray propagation, offering an important observational test of quantum electrodynamics in extreme magnetic fields.
go.nature.com
Can empty space alter the behaviour of light? Turns out the answer is seemingly yes, if you have a magnetar on hand! Using NASA’s IXPE and NICER telescopes + the CSIRO’s Murriyang radio telescope, we may have finally detected this effect 🔭 🧪 ☄️ Publication in Nature: www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Genuinely upsetting news. Watching Sam Neill in The Dish when I was young was truly inspiring. Still hoping to one day go on a hayride!
Dr Laura Driessen@astrolaura.com · last mo.Trying to watch The Dish but it keeps getting all blurry. Feeling totally heartbroken, Sam Neill you were an absolute legend
I’m thrilled to share that my latest research paper has just been published in Nature Astronomy! It’s been nearly a year since I first submitted the manuscript to Nature and a little over three years since I began working on this project. www.nature.com/articles/s41... @natastron.nature.com
Periodic radio and X-ray emission from an accreting white dwarf binary - Nature Astronomy
ASKAP J174508.9-505149 is a spectroscopically confirmed accreting white dwarf binary also identified as a long-period radio transient, strengthening the link between these mysterious bursting sources ...
nature.com
The Artemis II crew just reported several impact flashes—explosions from hypervelocity impacts of meteoroids with the Moon—during the solar eclipse. We make a big effort to see a handful of these from Earth with telescopes. That astronauts flying by the Moon saw >4 in tens of minutes is AWESOME.
Integrity made its closest approach to the Moon, altitude 6543 km, at 2300:46 UTC Apr 6. Its furthest distance from Earth, 413149 km from the geocenter was at 2302:51 UTC.
The ARC have said (on LinkedIn) they will release outcomes for Discovery Projects Expressions of Interest (2027) tomorrow👇
Big if true!! An MSP in close orbit around Sagittarius A* would lead to some incredible tests of relativity
National Radio Astronomy Observatory - NSF NRAO@thenrao.bsky.social · 6mo agoNEW: Breakthrough Listen, NSF Green Bank Telescope Probe Galactic Heart for Hidden Pulsars Astronomers have discovered a possible millisecond pulsar, which would be the first found in the Milky Way's Galactic Center. #Astronomy #RadioAstronomy #GreenBankTelescope #BreakthroughListen #SETI #Pulsars
Incredible display of the Aurora Australis on Jan 20. Never thought I’d get to see the auroral oval this close up from Melbourne!
Li et al. monitored a repeating fast radio burst (FRB). They identify a transient excursion of its rotation measure (RM), which increases by orders of magnitude for 2 weeks. Possible causes include a coronal mass ejection from a binary companion star. ☄️ #radioastro www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
Aaaaand the papers are live on the Open Journal of Astrophysics!! #RadioAstronomy
The Open Journal of Astrophysics@ojastro.bsky.social · 8mo agoWe are pleased to announce the publication today (19th December 2025) of a special issue consisting of a series of papers about various aspects of Pulsar Science with the Square Kilometre Array Observatory. Links to the individual papers follow in a thread.... astro.theoj.org/issue/13006
It’s SKA Pulsar Day!! It’s been more than a decade since the previous science case for the SKA was published. So a bunch of us pulsar astronomers put together an update! 🔭☄️ arxiv.org/abs/2512.16152
Pulsar Science with the SKA Observatory
The large instantaneous sensitivity, a wide frequency coverage and flexible observation modes with large number of beams in the sky are the main features of the SKA observatory's two telescopes, the S...
arxiv.org
DECRA success rate is the lowest in 14 years, since 2012 (1st year the scheme ran). What a pathetic system we have for supporting new ideas, new people… DE26: 13.1% 25: 17.9 24: 19.6 23: 15.0 22: 19.7 21: 17.1 20: 16.0 19: 17.2 18: 16.3 17: 16.7 16: 16.4 15: 14.3 14: 13.6 13: 15.6 12: 12.8
ARC Tracker@arc-tracker.bsky.social · 9mo ago🚨 #DECRA #DE26 announcement: ❗️Outcomes announced publicly for Discovery Early Career Researcher Award 2026❗️ See ARC's RMS for list ➡️ https://rms.arc.gov.au/RMS/Report/Download/Report/a3f6be6e-33f7-4fb5-98a6-7526aaa184cf/285 /bot
Geeze. Surely you know you’ve stuffed up when your former science minister, whom *allegedly* despised Australia’s involvement in the SKA, is grilling your parties lack of support for science funding and cuts to the national science agency.
ARC Tracker@arc-tracker.bsky.social · 9mo agoHe’s not wrong, the former Science Minister* *In the same Party as the current one! (From Guardian Australia “live”)
Apparently it’s #NeutronStarWeek, i.e the things I study for my day (and sometimes night) job! More accurately I look at pulsars, which are neutron stars that are doing interesting things. Like emitting beams of radio waves from above their magnetic poles. #Astronomy #RadioAstronomy
New repeating FRB found by ASKAP and confirmed with MeerKAT! #RadioAstronomy #Astronomy www.astronomerstelegram.org?read=17257
ATel #17257: ASKAP discovery of a high rotation measure repeating Fast Radio Burst source with |RM| > 7000 rad m^-2
ATel On
astronomerstelegram.org
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 🔭🧪
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
Sneak preview of what I’ll be talking about at the upcoming SKA Science Meeting in sunny Görlitz next week!! #RadioAstronomy #DoublePulsarIsTheBestPulsar
