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In principle the same should happen to visible light emitted from the magnetar. But it’s both much harder to detect and the effect will be weaker.

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It’s a little more complicated than that. The magnetic field causes virtual particles that briefly pop in-and-out of existence due to quantum vacuum fluctuations to become polarised. These particles then interact with X-rays, causing the X-ray polarisation to become aligned with the magnetic field.

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Huge thanks to @theastrophoenix.bsky.social for putting together the amazing graphic!

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Marcus Lower @astromelow.bsky.social · 13/07/2026

Can empty space alter the behaviour of light? Turns out the answer is seemingly yes, if you have a magnetar on hand! Using NASA’s IXPE and NICER telescopes + the CSIRO’s Murriyang radio telescope, we may have finally detected this effect 🔭 🧪 ☄️ Publication in Nature: www.nature.com/articles/s41...

On the left is a magnetar, a sphere surrounded by donut shaped threads of a powerful magnetic field. Beams of radio waves blast out from the magnetic poles, shown as red jets of light. On the surface of the magnetar is a bright hot spot. A zoom-in on the hotspot illustrates X-rays (wiggly lines) becoming increasingly polarised as they interact with pairs of virtual particles that pop in out of existence (blue and red dots linked by arrows to small pops).

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Genuinely upsetting news. Watching Sam Neill in The Dish when I was young was truly inspiring. Still hoping to one day go on a hayride!

Fun Fact Science with Kovi @funfactscience.com · 01/06/2026

Reposted by Marcus Lower

I’m thrilled to share that my latest research paper has just been published in Nature Astronomy! It’s been nearly a year since I first submitted the manuscript to Nature and a little over three years since I began working on this project. www.nature.com/articles/s41... @natastron.nature.com

nature.com

Periodic radio and X-ray emission from an accreting white dwarf binary - Nature Astronomy

ASKAP J174508.9-505149 is a spectroscopically confirmed accreting white dwarf binary also identified as a long-period radio transient, strengthening the link between these mysterious bursting sources ...

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Marcus Lower @astromelow.bsky.social · 08/04/2026

That’s Australia silhouetted against the glare!

Astronomy Picture of the Day 🪐 @apod.shinyakato.dev · 08/04/2026

Reposted by Marcus Lower

🔭 Earthset Image Credit: NASA Text: Keighley Rockcliffe (NASA GSFC, UMBC CSST, CRESST II) ap260408

NASA alt text: Earthset captured through the Orion spacecraft window at 6:41 p.m. EDT, April 6, 2026, during the Artemis II crew’s flyby of the Moon. A muted blue Earth with bright white clouds sets behind the cratered lunar surface. The dark portion of Earth is experiencing nighttime. On Earth’s day side, swirling clouds are visible over the Australia and Oceania region. In the foreground, Ohm crater has terraced edges and a flat floor interrupted by central peaks. Central peaks form in complex craters when the lunar surface, liquefied on impact, splashes upwards during the crater’s formation.

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Reposted by Marcus Lower

Paul Byrne @theplanetaryguy.com · 07/04/2026

The Artemis II crew just reported several impact flashes—explosions from hypervelocity impacts of meteoroids with the Moon—during the solar eclipse. We make a big effort to see a handful of these from Earth with telescopes. That astronauts flying by the Moon saw >4 in tens of minutes is AWESOME.

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Reposted by Marcus Lower

Jonathan McDowell @planet4589.bsky.social · 07/04/2026

Integrity made its closest approach to the Moon, altitude 6543 km, at 2300:46 UTC Apr 6. Its furthest distance from Earth, 413149 km from the geocenter was at 2302:51 UTC.

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Reposted by Marcus Lower

Robert "The Bobby Yaga" McNees @mcnees.bsky.social · 06/04/2026

NBD, just some humans in a spaceship watching the crescent Earth slip behind the Moon. #Artemis

A tiny crescent Earth slides behind the Moon on the camera feed from the Integrity spacecraft.

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Reposted by Marcus Lower

ARC Tracker @arc-tracker.bsky.social · 25/02/2026

The ARC have said (on LinkedIn) they will release outcomes for Discovery Projects Expressions of Interest (2027) tomorrow👇

Screenshot of LinkedIn post from ARC saying that DP27 EOI outcomes will be released on RMS on the 26th Feb 2026.

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Marcus Lower @astromelow.bsky.social · 10/02/2026

Big if true!! An MSP in close orbit around Sagittarius A* would lead to some incredible tests of relativity

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Marcus Lower @astromelow.bsky.social · 21/01/2026

Incredible display of the Aurora Australis on Jan 20. Never thought I’d get to see the auroral oval this close up from Melbourne!

Aurora appearing as a hazy green band with hints of pinky-purple streaks above it

Person posing with arms outstretched in front of the aurora

Intense aurora with bright green horizontal streaks below pink and purple pillars of light

Pink pillars of light extending up from the horizon

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Reposted by Marcus Lower

Keith Smith @drkeithsmith.bsky.social · 15/01/2026

Li et al. monitored a repeating fast radio burst (FRB). They identify a transient excursion of its rotation measure (RM), which increases by orders of magnitude for 2 weeks. Possible causes include a coronal mass ejection from a binary companion star. ☄️ #radioastro www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

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Aaaaand the papers are live on the Open Journal of Astrophysics!! #RadioAstronomy

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And of course, this meant flexing my Adobe Illustrator skills! Here’s a couple nice graphics that I put together for the SKA pulsar magnetospheres and interiors papers 😁 #RadioAstronomy

Diagram of a pulsar with different regions of interest highlighted

Cross-sectional cutaway of a pulsar, with different layers and their composition highlighted.

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I was involved in 3/12 of the updates - Magnetospheres: arxiv.org/abs/2512.16157 - Testing gravity: arxiv.org/abs/2512.16161 - Interiors (I helped out with coordinating this one): arxiv.org/abs/2512.16162

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Pulsar Science with the SKA Observatory

It’s SKA Pulsar Day!! It’s been more than a decade since the previous science case for the SKA was published. So a bunch of us pulsar astronomers put together an update! 🔭☄️ arxiv.org/abs/2512.16152

arxiv.org

The large instantaneous sensitivity, a wide frequency coverage and flexible observation modes with large number of beams in the sky are the main features of the SKA observatory's two telescopes, the S...

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Marcus Lower @astromelow.bsky.social · 10/12/2025

No worries! I’m still within 5 years post-PhD, so not eligible to apply for a Future at the moment.

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Marcus Lower @astromelow.bsky.social · 10/12/2025

Yep! I’m an ECR and have been asked to review a pair of Future Fellowships.

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Reposted by Marcus Lower

ARC Tracker @arc-tracker.bsky.social · 25/11/2025

DECRA success rate is the lowest in 14 years, since 2012 (1st year the scheme ran). What a pathetic system we have for supporting new ideas, new people… DE26: 13.1% 25: 17.9 24: 19.6 23: 15.0 22: 19.7 21: 17.1 20: 16.0 19: 17.2 18: 16.3 17: 16.7 16: 16.4 15: 14.3 14: 13.6 13: 15.6 12: 12.8

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Marcus Lower @astromelow.bsky.social · 19/11/2025

Geeze. Surely you know you’ve stuffed up when your former science minister, whom *allegedly* despised Australia’s involvement in the SKA, is grilling your parties lack of support for science funding and cuts to the national science agency.

Sascha Trippe 🛰️ 사샤 트리페 @saschatrippe.bsky.social · 17/11/2025

Reposted by Marcus Lower

China is investing big in #RadioAstronomy. #EAVN25 🧪🔭📡

Talk by Wu Jiang (SHAO) showing 2 new 110–120-meter radio telescopes under construction.

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Marcus Lower @astromelow.bsky.social · 03/09/2025

Sadly a DECRA can only purchase up to 1/3rd of a house in Sydney, let alone a giant radio telescope…

Marcus Lower @astromelow.bsky.social · 03/09/2025

Or just refurbished the one already there!

Marcus Lower @astromelow.bsky.social · 03/09/2025

Does the telescope actually come with the land? And the buyer could (in theory) do whatever they want with the telescope?

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Marcus Lower @astromelow.bsky.social · 01/09/2025

Could tell the antennas were all pointed at the same spot and that data was streaming easily enough!

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Marcus Lower @astromelow.bsky.social · 01/09/2025

There was indeed a large cat. But only a single antenna…

Marcus Lower @astromelow.bsky.social · 31/08/2025

What babysitting a telescope the size of Australia looks like #RadioAstronomy

Image of a computer screen filled with windows that show various telescope diagnostics and pictures of where they are pointed.

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Marcus Lower @astromelow.bsky.social · 27/08/2025

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

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

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...

doi.org

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

The dynamic magnetosphere of Swift J1818.0–1607

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...

doi.org

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

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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...

aanda.org

The impact of glitches on young pulsar rotational evolution

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...

doi.org

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