A slowly flickering source of radio waves that changes over time might be a neutron star or a white dwarf – but its behaviour doesn’t quite fit any of our theories.
An artist’s impression of the the NGC 1851E binary system, looking over the shoulder of the dark mystery companion star.
MPIfR; Daniëlle Futselaar (artsource.nl)
Astronomers have detected a long-running source of slow, repeating radio pulses that can’t be explained by current theories – but it’s probably not aliens.
By timing radio pulses from an array of galactic pulsars, scientists see hints of gravitational waves from supermassive black hole pairs in a breakthrough that may reveal hidden details of galaxy evolution.
The pulsar PSR J0523-7125 is more than ten times brighter than any other radio pulsar outside the Milky Way.
An artist’s impression of the Double Pulsar system in which the two pulsars orbit each other every 2.5 hours and send out high-energy beams that sweep across the sky.
Image credit: John Rowe Animations/CSIRO
After six decades during which it tracked lunar missions, spotted distant pulsars and quasars, and even expanded our concept of the size of the Universe, the Parkes telescope is still going strong.
One of Einstein’s weirder predictions is that massive, spinning objects exert a drag on space-time itself. Now an orbiting pair of unusual stars has revealed this effect in action.
‘Unknown Pleasures’ as you’ve never seen it before…
Freeda/Shutterstock
The little-known Rossi X-ray Timing Explorer spacecraft was like a Geiger counter for the universe, listening to black holes and zombie stars.
The Vela pulsar makes about 11 complete rotations every second, it also has a glitch.
X-ray: NASA/CXC/Univ of Toronto/M.Durant et al; Optical: DSS/Davide De Martin
You can’t just buy a radio telescope receiver off the shelf. So CSIRO has been hard at work building receivers for the world’s largest telescopes using the very latest technology.
The vast expanse of Western Australia is perfect for radio astronomy.
Pete Wheeler, ICRAR
The Murchison Widefield Array sits in remote Western Australia far from noisy civilisation so it can help us understand the universe by tuning into radio waves from the distant cosmos.
A visualisation of gravitational waves emitted by two orbiting supermassive black holes.
CSIRO
Telescopes have come a long way since the days when they were all about lone astronomers watching the night sky through their upstairs windows. Today teams of astrophysicists build and use much more modern…