Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

An institute or grant not budgeting for APCs is apparently a legitimate reason to ask RAS for a fee waiver!
I asked for one during a brief period between MNRAS going gold open access and my institution making a deal with them, and it was granted

1

Marcus Lower @astromelow.bsky.social · Aug 19

And finally, some pulsars live in unusual locations.

Like this millisecond pulsar that I helped find in the central region of our Galaxy! And is embedded in a giant glowing filament of radio light!!

doi.org/10.3847/2041...

A Millisecond Pulsar Binary Embedded in a Galactic Center Radio Filament - IOPscience

A Millisecond Pulsar Binary Embedded in a Galactic Center Radio Filament, Lower, Marcus E., Dai, Shi, Johnston, Simon, Barr, Ewan D.

doi.org

1

Marcus Lower @astromelow.bsky.social · Aug 19

Some neutron stars have extremely powerful magnetic field and do all sorts of whacky things. Like emitting beams fast radio bursts 💥

Or behave in totally unexpected ways: doi.org/10.1093/mnra...

And imprint their magnetic fields on the emitted radio waves: doi.org/10.1038/s415...

The dynamic magnetosphere of Swift J1818.0–1607

ABSTRACT. Radio-loud magnetars display a wide variety of radio-pulse phenomenology seldom seen among the population of rotation-powered pulsars. Spectropol

doi.org

1 1

Marcus Lower @astromelow.bsky.social · Aug 19

There’s also a unique “double pulsar” that has provided an extremely powerful tool for testing relativity: www.aanda.org/articles/aa/...

And teaching us about what goes on in the magnetic fields of neutron stars: doi.org/10.1093/mnra...

www.aanda.org

1 1

Marcus Lower @astromelow.bsky.social · Aug 19

By carefully tracking the rotation rates of 100’s of pulsars, we’ve been able to peer into their insides: doi.org/10.1093/mnra...

And realise that both the rate at which their spins slow down and emit radio waves are A LOT more variable than once thought: doi.org/10.1093/mnra...

The impact of glitches on young pulsar rotational evolution

ABSTRACT. We report on a timing programme of 74 young pulsars that have been observed by the Parkes 64-m radio telescope over the past decade. Using modern

doi.org

1 1

Marcus Lower @astromelow.bsky.social · Aug 19

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

2 4 22

Marcus Lower @astromelow.bsky.social · Jul 1

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

www.astronomerstelegram.org

1 11

Reposted by Marcus Lower

LIGO Scientific Collaboration @ligo.org · Jun 24

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 🔭🧪

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.

2 24 50

Reposted by Marcus Lower

Tara Murphy @taramurphy.bsky.social · Jun 20

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

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

3 22

Marcus Lower @astromelow.bsky.social · Jun 16

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

16

Marcus Lower @astromelow.bsky.social · Jun 15

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

2

Marcus Lower @astromelow.bsky.social · Jun 15

Been a good couple of days in Germany so far

2 6

Marcus Lower @astromelow.bsky.social · Jun 12

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

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”.

3 13

Marcus Lower @astromelow.bsky.social · Jun 3

Burn it with (pulsar) fire!!

1 2

Marcus Lower @astromelow.bsky.social · May 24

Coffee days ☕️

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

2

Marcus Lower @astromelow.bsky.social · May 22

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

1 1

Marcus Lower @astromelow.bsky.social · May 18

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.

2

Marcus Lower @astromelow.bsky.social · May 17

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...

Image showing a brightly glowing filament of radio light. Next to it is a much fainter structure with a bright point of radio light embedded in it, labelled “PSR J1744-2946”.

1 30

Reposted by Marcus Lower

Shanika Galaudage @astronerdika.bsky.social · Apr 23

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

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

15 45 170