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The New Moon above Calgary tonight with glowing Earthshine ~ Magical Mystical #Earthshine #NewMoon #yyc #Canada: image via Joy Daniels @JoyousBounce11, 22 January 2015
cold old tired early late
bright new moon above the bay
cradling to its bosom its heavy sorrow
laden mars violet childhood one
more time
The Parkes radio telescope in western New South Wales, where the fast radio burst was detected: photo by CSIRO, ATNF/AAP via The Guardian, 21 January 2015
Fast radio bursts (FRBs) are one of the most tantalizing mysteries of the radio sky; their progenitors and origins remain unknown and until now no rapid multiwavelength follow-up of an FRB has been possible. New instrumentation has decreased the time between observation and discovery from years to seconds, and enables polarimetry to be performed on FRBs for the first time. We have discovered an FRB (FRB 140514) in real-time on 2014 May 14 at 17:14:11.06 UTC at the Parkes radio telescope and triggered follow-up at other wavelengths within hours of the event.
from A real-time fast radio burst: polarization detection and multiwavelength follow-up (Abstract): E. Petroff et al., Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, Volume 447, Issue 1
CSIRO cuts are front-page news in Parkes. Photograph: Julian Chung/Guardian Australia via The Guardian, 2 July 2014
The pinhole is narrowing, but it's not quite dark yet...
Detach into Future self, clarity and illumination by breaking free of past life identities #newmoon: image via Slater Bradley @slaterbradley, 20 January 2015
A fleeting but immensely powerful celestial signal has been “heard” live for the first time, radio astronomers in Australia have announced, bringing scientists a step closer to discovering its mysterious origins.
“Fast radio bursts” last only milliseconds but produce more energy in that time than the sun does in 24 hours. Their source has baffled astronomers since 2007, when researchers first detected “a bright millisecond radio burst of extragalactic origin” buried in a 90-hour pulsar survey taken at the Parkes observatory in western New South Wales.
Since then just seven more bursts have been identified, but only ever picked up weeks after the signal was received. Last May, for the first time, astronomers caught a live one.
“It was chaos,” said Emily Petroff, the Swinburne University PhD student leading the project that detected the burst.
An email alert went out 10 seconds after the discovery. Telescopes in California, the Canary Islands, Chile, Germany, Hawaii and India scrambled to point their receivers at the same patch of sky where the signal was heard. Astronomers quickly made optical, infrared, ultraviolet and x-ray observations of its traces.
News of the discovery was published on Tuesday in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society.
Neil Armstrong’s moonwalk was beamed from the Parkes radio telescope in rural NSW: photo by Julian Chung/Guardian Australia via The Guardian, 2 July 2014
Around 10,000 fast radio bursts are thought reach our galaxy each day, but telescopes can only survey a small patch. “We’re very rarely pointing in the right direction at the right time,” Petroff said. “Every once in a while we just get super lucky.”
At the very least, this latest detection gives fast radio burst hunters some clues about where to look. “We’ve set the trap. Now we just have to wait for another burst to fall into it.”
Petroff said the radio signals “essentially encode information in them of all the things they’ve pass through between their emitter and our telescope”. That means figuring out the trajectory of the signal and its exact age might yield answers to even deeper questions: about the matter that exists between galaxies, even the weight of the universe itself.
That work is threatened by an earthly source: science funding cuts by Australia’s federal government have hit the Parkes observatory hard. The dish that helped broadcast the 1969 moon landing could shut within two years “without substantial, long-term external investment,” senior astronomers have warned.
“As it stands, in the field of fast radio bursts, Parkes is by far the world leader,” Petroff said. If it did close, “it would be very difficult to keep operating on the same level”.
Dying star could be behind immensely powerful radio bursts 'heard' live: Astronomers may be one step closer to discovering origins of mysterious signals after detecting the millisecond-long blip live for the first time: Michael Safi, The Guardian, 21 January 2015
Jobs could be on the line at 'the dish' as the CSIRO faces budget cuts: photo by CSIRO/AAP Image via The Guardian, 2 July 2014
Super Moon in Aquarius Tonight - January 20th 2015: image via Evolve and Ascend @evolveandascend, 20 January 2015 Asbury Park, New Jersey
The everyday reality of #climatechange: image via 350 dot org @350, 20 January 2015
#Climatechange boosting risks of conflict in fragile states - report: image via King Stevens @zypyxx,14 January 2015
#ClimateChange is laying waste to #water supplies, warns @FarmBureau: image via Jason Lamarche @Lamarche, 14 January 2014
#Canada won’t commit to meet #USA methane cuts #oilandgas # #climatechange #regulation #cdnpoli: image via WestCoastNativeNews @WCnativenews, 14 January 2015
The world’s largest polluters are being subsidized by your governments. #climatechange: image via Ben and Jerry's @benandjerrys, 14 January2015
Leave #fossilfuels buried to prevent #climatechange Do you agree?: image via RelayBlue @Relay_Blue 14 January 2015
I am a floating force of life, waiting to be honored by....you. Time is running out. @Extinction_OPS @#climatechange: image via The Earth @myearthfriend, 14 January 2015
Dark Snow Doesn't Bode Well For North America #environment #climatechange: image via Reg Saddler @zaibatsu, 16 January 2015
Study quantifies huge amount of runoff from Greenland's snow-melt rivers #climatechange: image via Bob Berwyn, 14 January 2015
Meltwater in Greenland Ice Sheet Hastened - #climatechange image via start your acc here @xencasartup, 22 January 2015
Two sub-glacial lakes have drained in Greenland raising concern abt #climatechange + ice sheet: image via As It Happens @cbcasithappens, 22 January 2015
Oceans rising far faster than in the past, says new study @TorontoStar #climatechange #cdnpoli: image via As It Happens @cbcasithappens, 14 January 2015
Researchers worry that #climatechange will accelerate melting of Andes #Glaciers #cdnpoli: image via Blue Channel @bluechannel24, 22 January 2014
Oka Road entry to the percolation ponds #climatechange: image via #ClimateAction @EcoWarrior1980, 22 January 2014
Dry percolation ponds off Los Gatos Creek at Dell Ave #climatechange: image via #ClimateAction @EcoWarrior1980, 22 January 2014
Will we burn all the fossil fuels we have in order to meet the world’s demand for energy, even if it results in climate chaos?: photo by Murdo Macleod/Murdo Macleod via The Guardian, 22 January 2015
Jilin, China. Smog along the banks of the Songhua river as temperatures reach minus 14C. The air quality index in north China’s Jilin province has risen to 260, indicating high pollution: photo by ChinaFotoPress via the Guardian, 22 January 2015
In Bangladesh, a woman searches the riverside in Dhaka for any plastic she can sell for recycling. Around a third of the city’s 15 million residents live in poverty: photo by Munir Uz Zaman/AFP via the Guardian, 13 December 2014
An aerial view taken from an Indian Air Force's helicopter shows a flooded Srinagar city. Anger mounted over what many survivors said was a bungled operation to help those caught in the region's worst flooding in 50 years: photo by Adnan Abidi/Reuters via the Guardian, 13 September 2014
A Filipino man carries a plastic sheet from his house after strong waves caused by typhoon Hagupit battered a coastal village in Legazpi. Residents began trickling back to their homes when local authorities reported the typhoon had passed. Nearly 900,000 people had moved out of their homes into shelters: photo by Aaron Favila/AP via the Guardian, 13 December 2014
A solitary figure watches the strong waves lashing a coastal village: photo by Francis R. Malasig/EPA via the Guardian, 6 December 2014.
A resident does what he can to secure the roof of his shanty home in Tacloban city: photo by Francis R. Malasig/EPA via the Guardian, 6 December 2014
Waves crash into houses along the coast: photo by Aaron Favila/AP via the Guardian, 6 December 2014
A man reacts as strong winds and rain from Typhoon Hagupit hit the shore in Legazpi: photo by Aaron Favila/AP via the Guardian, 6 December 2014
Residents wade through floodwater in Borongan city: photo by Francis R. Malasig/EPA via the Guardian, 6 December 2014
Motorists make their way through fallen trees in the town of Taft, Samar island: photo by Francis R. Malasig/EPA via the Guardian, 6 December 2014
A Qantas Airways Boeing 737-800 flies through storm clouds above Sydney after the Australian Bureau of Meteorology issued a severe thunderstorm warning: photo by David Gray/Reuters via the Guardian, 13 December 2015