CosmicRami

Astronomer, driving The Dish📡 to study pulsars in my PhD. Also, founded SpaceAustralia.com. Also, love a bit of astrophotography. Also, do everything with my little mate, Max. Also, Ultra-Gay. Also, fuck Elon Musk. He/Him. Header image credit: ESO/L. Calçada.

Public Key

npub19urv0hdzpshhgxt67xkq2df8zlxq4utpwettt4jh9dlpjf4snq5sfrqq4e

NIP-05 Address

CosmicRami@aus-social.mostr.pub

Profile Code

nprofile1qqsz7pk8mk3qctm5r9a0rtq9x5n30nq279shv4446etjklsey6cfs2gzxv0rv

Author Public Key

npub19urv0hdzpshhgxt67xkq2df8zlxq4utpwettt4jh9dlpjf4snq5sfrqq4e

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Last Notes

2025-04-17 05:15:29

You may have seen headlines today - such as in The New York Times - suggesting the possible detection of a biosignature on an exoplanet. It’s an exciting prospect, no doubt. But it’s also an extraordinary claim, and as the saying goes, "extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence" (Carl Sagan).
While the molecule in question is associated with biological processes, it’s important to note that non-biological (abiotic) pathways for its formation exist as well (see: Reed et al. 2024 ApJL; Sanz-Novo et al. 2025 ApJL). These results are interesting, but far from conclusive.
Scientists work within a robust framework to test such claims. This includes:
- Peer review and replication
- Community feedback and critique
- Cross-validation through multiple instruments and techniques
- Avoiding sensationalism in science communication
- Building consensus through sustained investigation
I am looking forward to hearing more from the exoplanet and astrobiology communities on these findings before drawing conclusions.
In the meantime, the ripple effect of bold headlines - like "Possible Signs of Extraterrestrial Life" - has already begun. A friend at the dentist this morning spotted a very misleading headline about this on Channel 9 News!
This is where science communication becomes critical: managing public interest and excitement without compromising scientific accuracy.
We should use moments like these to show the process - how scientific ideas are proposed, tested, debated, and refined - to broader audiences. Whether we’re talking about space, climate change, or pandemics, this transparency is essential to building trust in science.
Aliens make for a great headline, but the real story is in how we do the science.
#JWST #Astronomy #Astrobiology #Astrodon #Science #ScienceCommunication
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2025-04-11 14:17:29

Really epic image featured on @nprofile…y7jj today!
Captured by AJ Smadi from Washington (state), in daytime skies (11:57am) on April 5th — the image shows ISS and the crescent of Venus.
The planning this would have taken to get right — very nice work!👏🏽👏🏽👏🏽
(I annotated the rough distances)
#SpaceStation #Venus #ISS #astrodon
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2025-04-09 21:52:08

Your Smartphone Can Measure Solar Storms! ☀️🧲
Industry researchers found a way to provide better global coverage of what dynamics are occurring in the turbulent ionosphere - a region of Earth's atmosphere that is affected by the Sun's activity. They did this by tapping into GPS signals bouncing back and forth between smartphones and satellites.
Check out my latest #SpaceAustralia article here: https://www.spaceaustralia.com/news/your-smartphone-can-tell-us-about-solar-storms
📸 Kast, Smith, Google Research Software Engineers
#Geomagneticstorms #ionosphere #GPS #Astrodon #Science #Smartphones
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2025-04-09 00:09:05

A new comet has appeared - Comet SWAN25F.
It's still in the process of being catalogued. Discovered by Aussie amateur astronomer Michael Mattiazzo.
It is brightening to binoc level observability. Its tail is long, about 2 degrees
This image was taken by Michael Jäger and Gerald Rhemann.
#Comet #Astrophotography #Astronomy #Astrodon
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2025-04-07 04:38:08

More Sydney Fireball Footage!
As more people hear about the fireball over Sydney on the weekend, they’ll go back and check their security cam footage. They might see something in there!
This was the case of Insta user Samakazi - her camera caught the fireball too!
HT @nprofile…83c6 and shared with permission.
#Meteor #Fireball #Astrodon
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2025-04-07 02:27:59

- reply

@nprofile…83c6 wow!
May I share this with my networks on social media? If so, what attribution should I be applying (as in, how would the person like me to credit them? e.g. name, link to their site, social media handle, etc.)

2025-04-06 10:08:22

- reply

@nprofile…83c6 that’s awesome! Shared it anywhere?

2025-04-06 04:45:33

If you happened to be awake around 02:46:45 early Saturday morning and were looking south, you would have seen a bright fireball over our city!
You can watch the 10s video here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3HSe7ffMgQ0
Footage from WebCamSydney
#Sydney #Meteor #Fireball #Astrodon
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2025-04-03 20:58:00

Backyard Galaxies with the #SeestarS50 last night
#astrophotography #astrodon
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2025-03-22 10:27:22

'Mars Attack - How Elon Musk's Plans for Mars Threaten Earth'
This is a really great read, and presented in the scroll storytelling format (I love this style).
By Dr Kelly Weinersmith & Zach Weinersmith (who wrote the excellent 'A City on Mars' book)
https://thebulletin.org/2025/03/mars-attacks-how-elon-musks-plans-to-colonize-mars-threaten-earth/#post-heading
#SpaceExploration #Mars #Astrodon
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2025-03-20 04:25:19

My mind is still a bit blown from #Euclid telescope images last night.
When I zoomed in on a tiny patch of sky — field of view: 7.1' x 3.6, which is about the size of a grain of rice held at arms length — there was so much to see.
Walls and walls of galaxies. And then more walls of galaxies behind this.
Each galaxy hosts hundreds of billions of stars and there are millions of them, all, in this tiny field of view.
We are tiny tiny creatures.
#Astrodon #Galaxies #scicomm #astronomy
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2025-03-09 22:41:41

As many others have noted 'A City on Mars' is an excellent book that everyone should read.
But if you haven't got the time, then spend 18 mins with the authors in this excellent interview explaining why 'Humans on Mars' is extremely challenging and likely not happening anytime soon.
I would go as far as suggesting 'A City on Mars' be used in the curriculum as it *really* applies a lot of critical thinking and analysis to many concepts that Musk bros perpetuate.
It could - in a way - be a tool to stop the next generation of Musk-bro-thinking styles.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oN_CbqooDJs
#SpaceExploration #Mars #Astrodon

2025-02-22 22:49:02

Want to wake up every morning and have this as your view?
Well, now's your chance!
https://jobs.csiro.au/job/Parkes%2C-NSW-Observatory-Manager-Parkes-Observatory/1060694666/
Best* telescope in the world! 📡
* according to me, and many others, and you know it is, so let's not argue about this, kthxbai
(pic by me)
HT Mark Cheung (from CSIRO)
#RadioAstronomy #Parkes #TheDish #Astrodon #SpaceJobs #Telescopes
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2025-02-15 07:58:59

Have this friend who is newish to #astrophotography here in Sydney. He did 40-hour mosaic on the Vela Supernova remnant in h-alpha/[O-III] …. And holy heck it is incomprehensibly magnificent! 🔭
Those are exploded star gutz. At its heart is the Vela pulsar. 📡
Elfie is awesome and you should follow his recent immersion and obviously very good work in astrophotography.
His Instagram is here: https://www.instagram.com/elfn8r?igsh=MWV3aWRrN3VuNDFkdg==
Shared with permission.
📸 David Elford
#Supernova #Vela #Nebula #Astrodon
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2024-12-19 03:02:00

EVERYONE 🚨
The SKAO has released some short video of one of the SKA-Low stations (located in Australia) making a pulsar detection.
The SKA won’t be finished until around 2030s but stations will switch on so we’re heading into the early data collection stages.
If you’ve never heard of the SKA, it’s a new instrument being built in Australia and South Africa — and will be the most powerful radio telescope on our planet.
It’s going to change our view of the Universe, and has been decades in the making.
Read more: https://www.spaceaustralia.com/feature/road-leads-square-kilometre-array
#SpaceAustralia #Astrodon #RadioAstronomy #Telescopes
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2024-12-12 21:02:27

The 25m Dwingeloo radio telescope (owned by ASTRON) has been operating since '50s. Recently, it has been used more by amateurs and pro-am radio astronomers.
Excitingly, they picked up the Voyager 1 signal.
Voyager 1 is ~25 billion km away! (~4 x Pluto distance)
Why this is neat?
Well, the Voyagers are so far away (human's furthest objects) that we need the biggest telescopes in the world (the Deep Space Network) to normally communicate with them. Those are big 70m dishes, so much larger gain.
A 25m dish, and the work of amateurs is a really nice story!
And to give you a scale of the signal power .... the signal from your home wi-fi is billions of times stronger (I think ~10 billion IIRC) than the signal Earth receives from Voyager spacecrafts. It's incredibly feeble, so detecting it is a big feat!
Well done to this team!
https://www.camras.nl/en/blog/2024/dwingeloo-telescope-receives-signals-from-voyager-1/
#Astrodon #RadioAstronomy #SpaceExploration #voyager1
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2024-12-03 21:54:26

More exciting, unexplained science!
An emerging class of objects in #RadioAstronomy, mostly discovered in the last few years, still can't be explained.
Now, two new multi-wavelength studies might have answers.
Wrote about both these Aussie astronomy cases, and how they might be giving us those additional clues, to narrow in on what we are seeing.
Are these an entirely new object all together? OR, do we need to re-think our physics? Both scenarios are fascinating.
My next piece for #SpaceAustralia:
https://www.spaceaustralia.com/feature/multi-wavelength-views-new-galactic-radio-astronomy-mysteries
📸 N. Hurley-Walker /MWA / Curtin / ICRAR
#Astrophysics #Astrodon #Science
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2024-12-03 05:33:28

Some exciting results!
Using MeerKAT (super sensitive telescope array) the MeerKAT Pulsar Timing Array (MPTA) team have also found supporting evidence (with their assumptions and models) of the gravitational wave background (GWB) that other Pulsar Timing Arrays (PTAs) announced last year. This is further independent verification!
The Universe rattles!
I had a chat with Dr. Matt Miles from Swinburne Uni / OzGrav about his lead-author paper and results: https://www.spaceaustralia.com/feature/mpta-finds-evidence-gravitational-wave-background
But the fun doesn't stop there! An additional paper, co-authored by Rowina Nathan, used the MPTA data to make the most detailed map of the GWB, and found an intriguing anisotropy (though, statistically, could be insignificant). If it turns out to be true it shows the GWB is not isotropic, and we could be seeing a unique system or some unknown cosmology. Rowina wrote a piece in #SpaceAustralia about this too: https://www.spaceaustralia.com/feature/mapping-gravitational-wave-universe
Very cool science that take pulsars and turn the Galaxy into a detector.
📸 C. Knox/Swinburne/OzGrav/SARAO
#RadioAstronomy #Pulsars #Astrodon #Astrophysics
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2024-11-28 07:14:20

It's #Pulsar confirmation day!
Then PhD student, Jocelyn Bell Burnell, actually detected the first signals from a pulsar on 6 Aug '67. From those results, Queen JBB connected the dots, this was astrophysical!
But after this first detection in Aug, there was nothing.
Until Nov 28.
Bell Burnell didn't give up in the meantime. She kept searching for the pulsar, and it was through her hard work, dedication, and persistence that the 28 Nov. confirmation came in.
The 'little bits of scruff' returned! Astrophysics changed forever.
Read more: https://www.spaceaustralia.com/feature/55-years-pulsar-science
Unfortunately, she never received the Nobel Prize for this. A huge scar on the awards, to this day.
📸 CSIROpedia
#Astrodon #RadioAstronomy #Astrophysics
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2024-11-26 21:21:57

1 in 100 billion! (well, so far ....)
There is one, and ONLY one of these systems we know about. It features two neutron stars, both pulsars. In even better news, both of these pulsar beams shine in our direction - so we can study the light of one as it passes through the powerful magnetic field of the other.
That's what Dr Marcus Lower from Swinburne University of Technology and his team did - they used the extremely sensitive MeerKAT telescope in South Africa to study the light, and polarization of one pulsar's beam as it passed through the magnetic field of the other.
This is extreme astrophysics at its best.
There is very much likely more double pulsars out there, but maybe only one beams at us, or none beam at us.
So, this is the only one we have so far ....
My latest for #SpaceAustralia
https://www.spaceaustralia.com/feature/unveiling-extreme-physics-galaxys-only-double-pulsar-system
📸M. Kramer/MPIfR
#Astrophysics #RadioAstronomy #Pulsars #Astrodon #Science
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2024-11-05 00:22:55

Just saw this post on US Senator Cory Booker's Instagram account and honestly .... I reckon a big portion of the world is thinking the same thing right now.
C'mon America - please do the right thing!
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2024-10-30 09:16:04

lots of fun #pulsar papers on arXiv today - but this is my fav (biased of course, some of these folks in our team, though this is not PPTA paper).
Pulsar radio waves are scattered off turbulent ISM plasma structures (<= AU-sized) and present as scintillation arcs in power spectra analysis. What that means is that when we plot the spectrum over time, we can look at the power of that spectrum and we see these scintillation arcs - they are like ghosts inside the data!
BUT - they tell us things!
Arc curvature depends on distance, velocity, and orientation of scattering layers, so it can help probe these parameters.
This was analysed for PSR J0437-4715 (closest and brightest millisecond pulsar to Earth) so the team modelled the pulsar-WD binary system ploughing through the ISM.
Look at its bow-shock! From this model, they can see that the conical structure is tilted away from our view by about 23-degrees, and is caused by the pulsar moving (very fast) through the interstellar medium.
In that second plt we can't see the pulsar (it's ~20km across), but that bright dot is the white dwarf companion. They're in a 5.7 day orbit, so effectively, from this distance we can say that the pulsar is in the same location.
Check out the paper here: arxiv.org/abs/2410.21390
#Astrophysics #Astrodon #RadioAstronomy
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2024-10-20 04:56:47

After several attempts but non-success, last night I drove out to mountains to have dinner with friends, where a brief 15 minute window of opportunity to finally capture it emerged.
Was FINALLY able to get ~2 mins of data, but finally saw C/2023 A3 (Tsuchinshan-ATLAS).
We had only about 15 mins before the sky was dark enough after sunset to get set up and capture comet photons.
It was brief, but it was beautiful. For the first time, I saw a comet with my eyes through binocs (as opposed to a screen). Venus looked marvellous as well.
Have also included an annotated diagram merging the wide-angle shot taken with the DSLR and the more zoomed-in version captured with Seestar S50.
Comets are trolls but they are neat when you see them! 😍
I was about to give up on this with the clouds. Thankful for that small window of opportunity!
#Astrodon #Astronomy #seestar50 #Comet #C2023A3 #TsuchinshanAtlas
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2024-10-16 02:47:08

Oh yeah, it's International Pronouns Day! (which always happens to be third Wednesday of October).
Pronouns are great, and allow you to refer and converse with people in the way they wish to be. It's the very polite/respectful thing to do and people are more engaged when you use them properly.
You might have seen a lot of folks on social platforms put their pronouns in their bios or their handles. You might even know these folks, and know that they identify using one of the gendered pronouns (male or female).
Well, the reason why many of us do it, is to normalize it for ALL folks!
So, even if you are firm in knowing how you identify, you show allyship with many people just by placing your pronouns in your bio. It says "I support people who need this".
Here are some nice resources on pronouns:
https://www.glsen.org/activity/pronouns-guide-glsen
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3xpvricekxU
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2024-10-14 03:33:03

Today marks a year since my last post on Twitter.
As many know, I was once very active on the platform and connected with countless people there (many of you included!), making it bittersweet to step away from over a decade of community-building. However, in recent years, Twitter has become a hub of misinformation, toxicity, and spam, and continuing to engage there only sustains a chaotic, unsustainable business model that I can no longer support.
Since leaving, I’ve found more rewarding and constructive interactions on other platforms (like here!) for both my personal and business accounts, enabling me to foster safer, more inclusive communities. Unfortunately, Twitter has evolved into an environment that often excludes the voices of different and intersecting minorities, myself included. By staying active there, brands and organisations inadvertently alienate these groups from participating in the conversation.
Starting over on new platforms is challenging, but I encourage others to reflect on how continued engagement on Twitter may contribute to exclusion and risk brand reputation damage. I know many folks here have left there as well, so I'd like to acknowledge your efforts to rebuild your communities here (and in other places) too. It's hard, I totally get it. But it is for the greater good.

2024-09-17 09:02:17

Got it with Seestar S50 just now from my backyard!
Moon with Saturn nearby (composite and edited in PS. Edits: made black and white, sharpened)
🌕🪐
#Astrophotography #Seestar #Astrodon
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2024-09-08 11:25:17

Ohhh it’s Saturn opposition night! 🪐
That means tonight, the Earth and Saturn will be closest in both their respective orbits.
If you image the planets and have clear skies, tonight’s a great night to do it as Saturn will be brightest and have largest apparent size in our sky.
📸 Sky Guide app
#Saturn #Planets #Astrodon
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2024-08-14 00:23:22

There's a lot of rhetoric, misinformation and violence that stems from the anti-immigration ideology.
However, there have been *many* studies that show that immigrants don't have a detrimental impact on society. They improve things.
This report links to lots of good, independent analyses.
https://www.brennancenter.org/our-work/analysis-opinion/debunking-myth-migrant-crime-wave

2024-04-28 23:03:01

Continuing on with my weekly capture of #SN2024ggi on Sunday evenings. Supernova still going strong in NGC 3621.
Stellar death in slow-mo. Relaxing. Unless you are there being destroyed by the enormous fireball of an entire star collapsing in on itself and violently exploding. That would not be relaxing.
#SeestarS50 #Astronomy #supernova #science #astrodon
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2024-03-12 20:50:44

It's really doing my head in as to how JWST papers are reporting that there are galaxies, interacting galaxies, relatively 'soon' after the Big Bang. Like, how did they have time to build up like this?!
Paper (just accepted to journal) reports interacting pair at z= 9.3127 (around 510 million years after the Big Bang), with high mass + metal absorption lines 🤯
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41550-024-02218-7#Abs1
#Astrodon #Galaxies #JWST

2024-02-22 20:15:04

Ohhh, some exciting astro news!!! 👀👀👀
A new paper has found more evidence for a neutron star in the supernova 1987A remnant using JWST's MIRI/MRS and NIRSpec/IFU!
https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.adj5796
However, a secondary paper from a few days back, which also used JWST MIRI, found no evidence of the compact remnant in their data: https://arxiv.org/html/2402.14014v1
Almost 2 years ago I wrote a feature article looking at the evidence for this, so these new papers and findings are exciting!
https://www.spaceaustralia.com/feature/did-1987-supernova-produce-pulsar
📸 Fransson et al. / Bouchet et al.
#Supernova #Astrodon #Astrophysics #NeutronStar #Pulsar #SpaceAustralia #Science #SN1987A
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2024-01-18 21:26:59

👀👀👀👀👀👀
Stay cool, stay cool, don't lose your shit yet ....
PSR J0514−4002E, a millisecond pulsar in the globular cluster NGC 1851 in an eccentric binary system with a compact object that is reported to fall within the mass gap.
Could this be the holy grail? A pulsar orbiting a black hole?!
https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.adg3005
#Astrophysics #Pulsars #Science #Astrodon

2024-01-17 22:42:52

New research from Australia's Women in STEM ambassador team on impact of anonymisation on applications for access to research facilities in Australia finds enhanced success rates for ECRs, fostering diversity in the research pool.
The study also suggests a positive impact of anonymisation on the broader retention and advancement of researchers facing barriers in STEM research.
https://osf.io/preprints/osf/jyq2f
#WomenInSTEM #Diversity #Astrodon

2024-01-14 20:34:25

The DES Galaxy Collection: No. 9!
Name: NGC 68 Group
Category: Galaxy Gang
Distance: ~300 mly away
Constellation: Andromeda
Interesting: Whilst there are eight main members, this compact cluster contains about 34 galaxies, with other galaxies superimposed in front and many behind it.
📸 DES Legacy
#Astrodon #Galaxies #DESLegacy
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2024-01-13 00:50:38

Heading for some hiking in Patagonia and the Atacama in a couple of weeks. The opportunity to head to darker skies is always my go-to option for a holiday.
One issue I have is lugging lots of big and pricey camera gear for #astrophotography (and having to worry about insurance, damage, etc.)
This week I picked up a Seestar S50, which is compact enough for travel, and does sky tracking for long exposure imaging. So, will be taking this with me!
Just did a few solar shots right now. Look at those sunspots!
Its very good quality, easy to set up and minimal learning curve. Good price as well. Real test will be to see how it performs at night - my benchmark is it has to pick up galaxies from my Bortle 9 city skies. Will update when we have a clear night!
#Astronomy #Science #Astrodon
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2024-01-10 21:02:22

Remember when our fav red supergiant that refuses to go supernova dimmed in 19-20?
Well now, another colossal star - RW Cephei - has been caught in the act, dimming significantly (1/3 brightness!) likely caused by an eruption of gas that cooled to dust. 👀
I know lots of folks don’t want Betelgeuse to go supernova because it would ruin Orion - a constellation that humans have observed since the beginning times, and I feel this too.
But I *need* a ‘local’ supernova in my lifetime.
So RW Cephei will do. Also, hurry TF up Eta Carinae. We’re waiting.
📸 https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.3847/1538-3881/ace59d/meta
#Astronomy #Astrodon #Supernova #Supergiant
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2024-01-08 20:34:35

New JWST image drop, fresh from yesterday, processed by me!
NGC 1068 - a magnificent, and very bright spiral located about 47 mly away, feat. bright HII regions, as well as swirling clouds of dust. The MIRI data is like a whirlpool!
📸 JWST/NASA/ESA/STScI/A. Leroy
🎛️ NIRCAM F335M / MIRI F770W
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2023-12-31 03:59:00

Looking back at 2023, it was a good year for me.
Got to complete 6 (out of 10) of my goals and dove right into my PhD.
Overall I clocked up 161 hours of observing (85 for pulsar timing and rest on my own PhD pulsar). All using Parkes.
Ready to continue my science journey in 2024!
Whatever your plans are for NYE, I hope the next year brings lots of good things to you folks!
2024 is going to be tough for all of us (US elections, wars, plagues, etc.) but hopefully we find good things along the way to appreciate our fellow travellers on Spaceship Earth.
Happy New Year!
📸 A. Cherney
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2023-12-10 21:24:43

The DES Galaxy Collection: No. 6!
Name: NGC7020
Category: Put a ring on it
Distance: ~138 mly away
Constellation: Pavo
Interesting: This early-type beaut has a detached outer ring where most of the star formation is occurring and an inner ring with pointy hexagonal-like structures.
📸 DES Legacy
#Galaxies #DESLegacy #Asrrodon
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2023-10-26 01:01:47

Do you like galaxies? I DO.
I've been combing through the Legacy Survey, and ooft are they damn awesome!
So, am gonna do a 'Galaxy Photo of the Day' (GPOD) starting this weekend. Here's a lil' sample!
There will be:
- spirals
- edgy edge-ons
- drunk galaxies
- dusties
- mergers
- clusters
If you have a fav, lemme know and I will try find it! (note - the DES data doesn't cover all regions of the sky).
Also, these will mostly be spirals, as spirals >> ellipticals (it's true, and you know it).
Will try and get a few fun facts about each one ...
Will try to post a couple per week!
#Astrodon #Galaxies #Astronomy
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2023-10-25 07:34:42

The atmosphere is a (wonderful) fluid.
Also …. Home.
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2023-10-02 12:49:50

Wowowow @npub1x47…x3zf !!!
EXPLOSION FINGERS?!?!?!?
JWST’s new images from Orion Nebula are spectacular! Look at this structure 🥹🤩😱
📸 JWST / ESA / NASA / STScI / CSA / M. McCaughrean / S. Pearson
#JWST #Astrodon #OrionNebula #Astronomy
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2023-09-24 08:27:28

Just arrived in Narrabri to visit the Compact Array this week!
Big sky land, and dark skies … I can’t way to see the Milky Way again, away from the city lights!
Then doing some radio astronomy learning with these magnificent giants ….
#Astrodon #RadioAstronomy
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2023-09-08 23:44:02

Sydney Friends! Come along to my next talk on the weird and wonderful Pulsar Planets!
Astronomy Open Night - Macquarie Uni, 23 Sept 2023.
Watch my video here: https://www.instagram.com/p/Cw8tD9-yK0_/?hl=en
Grab tix here: https://event.mq.edu.au/astronomy-open-night-2023/
Wore my GWB shirt for this!
🔭🧪📡〰️〰️〰️🔵
Pass it on!
#Astrodon #Pulsars #SciComm
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2023-09-06 21:34:56

Researchers recently published a shocking statistic about the Australian education science curricula for grades 11/12 - a clear bias in the gender representation of scientists with only one female scientist listed.
Dr Shanika Galaudage, a co-author of the study, comments on the key findings and talks about these results and the importance of the IncludeHer movement.
https://www.spaceaustralia.com/opinions/its-2023-and-its-about-time-we-include-her
#SpaceAustralia
https://www.spaceaustralia.com/opinions/its-2023-and-its-about-time-we-include-her
#STEM #Science #Education #Equality #WomenInSTEM
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2023-08-24 00:20:15

This is long-form writing (which I love) but this excellent essay from Jo Chanlder (published in Griffith Review) took out the Eureka Prize for Science Journalism last night - a story that took a decade of work to fulfil.
Def. have a read of this: https://www.griffithreview.com/articles/buried-treasure/

2023-08-21 21:43:01

Aussie friends!
📺 Tune into ABC Catalyst tonight (8:30pm) to check out our team and story on converting data from
Space into sounds (sonification) in Astronomy.
That’s my boss (the awesome Dr George Hobbs) riding on our beautiful Murriyang (Parkes radio telescope).
A while back I wrote a piece for #SpaceAustralia on the importance of sonification, in particular, to make Astronomy more accessible and inclusive to extended audiences. It's an excellent topic of science but requires a lot of ableism (vision) to mostly participate in.
But sonification can help change this - as human audio capability is amazing!
Read more about this here: https://www.spaceaustralia.com/index.php/news/listening-astronomical-data
and don't forget to tune in tonight on ABC!
📸 ABC Catalyst / CSIRO
#Astrodon #Astronomy #Sonification #Inclusivity #RadioAstronomy #Data
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2023-08-10 00:46:10

Wow! 16 pro-amateur astrophotographers imaged the Whirlpool Galaxy, then combined their data to produce an image with 255 hours integration time. This is the result.
Credits and results in here: https://www.astrobin.com/7hwtz0/?fbclid=IwAR1pAzvCnwViMAZebbwJ0ypUHmzZ9YFLWNyM_ZMT8Id1W_nRcix5A7ajLRg
I absolutely love hearing about amateur and pro-am communities collaborating and working together to really highlight the contributions they can make to science.
These communities are pretty much self-funded but can deliver lots!
More on the processing of this image can be found here as well: https://theastroenthusiast.com/m51-processing/
There's also a video they have put together here as well: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zkES2ltGSoc
#Astrodon #Astrophoography #Astronomy #Science #Community
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2023-08-07 10:51:55

Forgot to share this here, but 6 August is the anniversary of the discover of #Pulsars by Dame Professor Jocelyn Bell Burnell.
She was looking through the roll of data from the telescope she helped build and noticed a little bit of ‘scruff’.
Her discovery changed our understanding of the Universe but sadly her male supervisor took credit and got the Nobel prize for it!
Read more: https://www.spaceaustralia.com/feature/55-years-pulsar-science
#Astrodon #RadioAstronomy #SpaceAustralia
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2023-07-06 20:06:52

We are at Aphelion, right now!
At 6:06am (Sydney time) the Earth reached the furthest point in its elliptical orbit around the Sun, and was moving at its slowest speed. It will now speed up as it heads to perihelion in January. Note - no impact on weather/seasons
📸 timeanddate
#Astrodon
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2023-06-29 04:10:11

🚨BIG SCIENCE NEWS 🚨
And our results (along with our international colleagues) have dropped!
Our team (and others) have started to see the strongest evidence as yet of the stochastic gravitational wave background - ripples in space-time cause by ALL the supermassive black holes in the history of the Universe colliding!
We use pulsars to study these riplles and we needed almost 20 years of data to even get the first hints! It's the long game!
I'm a co-author on the Aussie papers (as part of my work) but I also wrote about it here in my latest feature article on #SpaceAustralia
This is why I have been going on about pulsars for a few weeks now - this was coming!
Check it out here: https://www.spaceaustralia.com/feature/australian-scientists-help-uncover-cosmic-gravitational-rumblings
📸 Shanika Galaudage
#Astrodon #Astrophysics #RadioAstronomy #GravitationalWaves #Science #Pulsars
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2023-06-25 02:16:40

In about a week, an important chapter in #RadioAstronomy and Australian space heritage will come to a close.
The Molongolo Observatory, operating for 58 years and the last Mills Cross in Aust. will cease operations. 😭
The telescope recently had received some upgrades, but after almost 60 years of operations - its time has come.
It's had an incredible run, hosting over 50 PhDs, mapping the southern skies and training a generation of radio astronomers.
The design was pioneered by the work of Bernard Mills, with a prototype, known as the Mills Cross once developed at the Fleurs field station in Badgery's Creek in Sydney - where the new airport is currently being built.
It's also where a memorial and a small container of ashes of the radio astronomer pioneer, Grote Reber, are located (other telescopes also have Reber memorials too).
Over its time, this telescope has made such a significant impact in astronomy.
Besides the historical impact, MOST also was in recent times doing some excellent FRB science, and of course, all these years of knowledge in the radio astro community + instrumentation + survey results will go towards the SKA project.
So, now we say goodbye to a fantastic piece of Australian science infrastructure that holds a special place in the hearts of many who have come to know this gentle giant.
But we celebrate and thank its huge contribution to radio astronomy for nearly 60 years!
https://spaceaustralia.com/feature/iconic-australian-telescope-upgraded-future-science
📸 UTMOST / B. Pedersen / TROVE https://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-137782825/view
#SpaceAustralia #Astrodon #Telescopes #Scienec #SpaceHeritage
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