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

New tee arrived yesterday and it merges together two excellent pop culture pieces with some beautiful science.

I call it: ‘The Gravitational Wave Background’
🌊📡〰️〰️〰️🔵

Can’t wait to wear this in summer just so I can talk about the GWB to randoms.

Here’s also some words I wrote about the GWB on #SpaceAustralia pre the big announcements made at end of June.

https://www.spaceaustralia.com/feature/universes-roaring-low-frequency-gravitational-wave-background

#Astrodon #RadioAstronomy #Pulsars

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

🚨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

#Astrodon #Astrophysics #RadioAstronomy #GravitationalWaves #Science #Pulsars

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

Did you know that you can time an orchestra to the beat of a pulsar? 🎶🎶🎶

Sonification of astronomy data has started to gain traction, as it’s great for accessibility/inclusivity - and pulsars make excellent backing tracks 👇🏼

A fun, light-hearted piece by me that allows me to combine my love of pulsars with Kylie Minogue's newest and campest track, Padam Padam, all whilst it is Pride month globally. 🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍⚧️

All the stars (or should I say, compact remnants!) aligned!

https://spaceaustralia.com/news/rocking-sounds-pulsar-beats

#SpaceAustralia #Astrodon #Pulsars

Did you know, we have a detector the size of the Galaxy?! But what the heck can we use it for?

Well, we're looking for the gravitational wave background, and we're using pulsars to do it!

In part three of this series, I take a dive into what Pulsar Timing Arrays are, some of the challenges they face & how they can improve their sensitivity.

https://www.spaceaustralia.com/feature/humanitys-galactic-scale-detectors-pulsar-timing-arrays

#SpaceAustralia #Pulsars #PulsarTiming #GravitationalWaves #Astrophysics #Astrodon #RadioAstronomy

📸NR Fuller/Science

There's a dull roar that rumbles across the Universe: the gravitational wave background (GWB).

In part two of this special series, I dive into what the GWB is, what happens when #PulsarTiming Arrays around the world will finally make the first detection of this yet-to-be-discovered signal, and how it fits into the wider gravitational wave spectrum.

https://www.spaceaustralia.com/feature/universes-roaring-low-frequency-gravitational-wave-background

#SpaceAustralia #GravitationalWaves #Astrodon #Pulsars #Astrophysics #Astronomy

📸 NASA Visualisation Tea

Am so very excited for this series of four feature articles, coming out over the next couple of weeks - have worked really hard on these!

Diving into my fav cosmic objects - pulsars - but also how we are using them in our pulsar timing experiments to look for the gravitational wave backgrounds.

🚨 Kerp your eyes on these articles! 🚨

Part 1 👇🏼

https://www.spaceaustralia.com/feature/milky-ways-cosmic-clocks-pulsars

📸 NASA

#SpaceAustralia #Astrodon #RadioAstronomy #Pulsars #PulsarTiming #GravitationslWaves

Australia experienced a beautiful hybrid eclipse recently, with the Moon's shadow falling over Exmouth, WA.

I had a chat with Melanye Wawrik, Prof. Jonti Horner and Dr Vanessa Moss about their eclipse adventures.

Along with all the excitement and buzz of a solar eclipse, numerous scientists attended the event - to study it across the electromagnetic spectrum.
And whilst we were looking up, satellites looking down captured it too.

The Exmouth eclipse is one of several eclipses that Australia will experience before 2040.
Mark your calendars for the big one - 22 July 2028. The whole continent will experience it!

https://www.spaceaustralia.com/feature/all-roads-lead-australian-eclipse
#SpaceAustralia

#SpaceAustralia #Astrodon #Eclipse #RadioAstronomy

📸 J. Kaczerowski / Himawari-8 / M. Zeiler / X. Jubier

New #pulsar article from me!

An exciting new Australian survey has kicked off from the team at ICRAR using one of the most interesting-looking instruments around - the MWA Telescope - which looks like a bunch of spider antennas!

The SMART survey will scan southern skies in the low-frequency radio range, looking for pulsars - rapidly rotating neutron stars that blast out beams of energy from their magnetic poles.

The team has hit the ground running with two new papers published in the Publications of the Astronomical Society of Australia (PASA), made possible through the resources of Curtin University Swinburne University of Technology and Astronomy Australia Limited.

https://www.spaceaustralia.com/feature/using-our-smarts-find-pulsars

#SpaceAustralia #Astrodon #RadioAstronomy #Astrophysics

📸 N. Hurley-Walker/MWA Collab/CurtinUni

The existence of an undiscovered planet, in the outer suburbs of the Solar System, has captivated us all for many years.

But does #Planet9 really exist? I took a deep dive into the literature to review the evidence that has been presented so far - from why some scientists think it is there, whilst others think it might not be.

https://www.spaceaustralia.com/feature/undiscovered-world-why-planet-nine-might-not-be-there

#SpaceAustralia #Astrodon #SolarSystem #Astronomy

📸 Caltech/R. Hurt

This week, NASA will announce the astronauts that will form the crew of the #Artemis2 mission - returning humans into Lunar orbit, and preparing for the next Moon landing.

Australia's playing a central role to the program, with @canberradsn at the heart of it.

I got to tour the facility and chatting with CDSCC Outreach Manager, Glen Nagle about this big beautiful antennas, the history of the facility and the big missions coming up.

Took lots of photos, so there's a photo gallery in my new feature article for #SpaceAustralia. Here's four of my favs!

Check it out here: https://www.spaceaustralia.com/feature/canberras-deep-space-network-ready-return-moon

#DeepSpaceNetwork #Astrodon #SpaceExploration

Some of my friends are giants. And I love being in their company. Just sitting there, picturing the electromagnetic umbilical cord that connects us to robotic explorers across our Solar System.

New feature article out tomorrow on #SpaceAustralia that includes the gentle giants of @canberradsn

📸 me (2022)

#Artemis #Astrodon #DeepSpaceNetwork

I also realised I have written A LOT about #pulsars and #PulsarTiming for #SpaceAustralia!

14 feature-length articles (2K - 3K words) where I have interviewed Australian astronomers working in the field to share their research.

The pulsar topics include gravitational waves, pulsar timing arrays, spider pulsars, pulsar planets, glitches, relativity, history and more!

If you are looking for some in-depth articles on pulsar astronomy, check out this collection: https://www.spaceaustralia.com/science/pulsars?type=feature&page=0

#Astrodon #RadioAstronomy #Astrophysics

Nature has given us the ultimate cosmic clocks - #pulsars!

In a new feature article for #SpaceAustralia, I explore using these exotic objects in giant Galactic-scale detectors known as pulsar timing arrays to learn about our Universe.

https://www.spaceaustralia.com/feature/milky-ways-cosmic-clocks-pulsars

#RadioAstronomy #Astrodon #Astrophysics

Humans broadcast lots of noise (radio freq. interference) out into the Solar System, due to our activities. Earth's atmosphere (in particular, the ionosphere) reflects low-frequency radio waves back out into space.

These low-freq. radio waves are important, as they can tell us about the cosmological 'dark age' - the period of recombination when the Universe was relatively young.

One place we can be shielded from the RFI and send our telescopes is the Lunar far side - a pristine, quiet environment in which we can try to make these detections.

Now, a new mission - LuSEE-Night - is just about to do this, sending a demonstrator lander to probe these low-frequency spectra.

My latest piece for #SpaceAustralia on the Lu-SEE-Night mission, the cosmological dark ages, and why building radio telescopes on the Moon is complex.

https://www.spaceaustralia.com/feature/peering-dark-ages-far-side-moon

#RadioAstronomy #Astrodon #Cosmology

📷 NASA/LRO/SD Bale/WMAP

A complex, but consistent question we get in space science research is "why should we continue to fund this type of science when we can resolve real-world issues here on Earth?". It's a valid question.

But the thing is - sometimes, pure science leads to global applications that benefit billions. Radio Astronomy gave us Wi-Fi. Extremophile studies gave us PCR tests for the pandemic.

I always love sharing these types of real-world applications stories.

Recently, an Aussie-based company called Quasar Satellite Technologies, has taken phased-array feed tech from CSIRO's radio telescope, ASKAP, and worked out a way to use the tech to communicate with multiple satellites at once per ground station. Given how many satellites are going up - this is that kind of game-changing tech we want to see. They've just secured their next round of funding.

My latest for #SpaceAustralia ---> https://www.spaceaustralia.com/news/quasar-satellite-technologies-secures-6m-funding

📷 Quasar / CSIRO

#SatComms #Communication #GroundSegment #RadioAstronomy #Astrodon

There's been a bit of discussion recently around the potential development of a 'Lunar Timezone', in response to a new era of exploration and growth around our celestial companion.

I certainly think we need to cut the terrestrial umbilical cord of timekeeping away from Earth (this is hard) as we step out into the Solar System (be that humans or robots), but I am thinking bigger.

Instead of just a Lunar time zone, how can we build scalability and universality?

One time system to rule them all.

Thankfully, nature has given us just the tools ..... PULSARS.

My latest feature article for #SpaceAustralia on building a Galactic timekeeping system using pulsars.

https://www.spaceaustralia.com/feature/breaking-free-shackles-terrestrial-time

#RadioAstronomy #Pulsars #Navigation #Timing #Positioning #TimeKeeping #Astrodon

Very sad to hear the news today that the University of Sydney plans to no longer support the Molonglo Observatory after June 2023.

This important piece of Australian astronomical history is still producing some excellent scientific results today, esp. in the field of Fast Radio Bursts.

There is so much to love about this telescope, I hope it finds funding (philanthropic, commercial, Govt, crowdsourced, etc.) to keep it going.

Wrote about its incredible history and science contributions here (from March 2022): https://www.spaceaustralia.com/index.php/feature/iconic-australian-telescope-upgraded-future-science

#RadioAstronomy #Observatories #Heritage #Telescopes #FastRadioBursts #SpaceAustralia #Astrodon