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Dr Shanika Galaudage

@astronerdika.bsky.social
1.9K followers 242 following 424 posts

Diary of a space detective (astrophysicist)🕵️ Postdoc at CIERA + Adler Planetarium Just going with that Universe flow ✨ 🇦🇺 -> 🇫🇷 -> 🇺🇸 linktr.ee/astronerdika | 🇦🇺🇱🇰 (she/her)

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Reposted by Dr Shanika Galaudage
Astronomer Royal for Scotland | Catherine Heymans @astroroyalscot.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
As arXiv announces a new submission rate limit policy, I refer anyone who is up in arms about it to👇Hogg 2026👇. I'm so confused who would want to submit so much slop? For me (both writing and hiring) it's always been about quality over quantity, every single time. 🧪⚛️ blog.arxiv.org/2026/10/01/u...
blog.arxiv.org
Fair Moderation, Equitable Access, and AI: arXiv’s Updated Rate Limit Policy
arXiv, and the scientific community at large, are facing a watershed moment. Scholarly publishing is currently changing at a rapid pace, and we are seeing a…
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Dr Shanika Galaudage @astronerdika.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
Annnnnd it’s time for round 2 🤞 Arrived at 3:50, flight at 6:35 and check-in desks are not open yet 😭
Image of a bunch of check-in desks at airport. It looks deserted. The big screens are not even on yet.
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Reposted by Dr Shanika Galaudage
European Space Agency @esa.int · 29/09/2026
A little help from Earth 🌍 On 28 September, our Juice spacecraft flew by Earth, using our planet’s gravity to adjust its course towards Jupiter, increasing its speed by 3.5 km/s while using very little fuel. Next up: another Earth flyby in 2029, before Jupiter in 2031. 🔗 esa.int/Science_Expl...
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Dr Shanika Galaudage @astronerdika.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
Anyone experienced long delays due to mechanical issues with British Airways? Got to airport at 8:10 Scheduled departure: 10:40 It’s now 16:15 😭
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LIGO Scientific Collaboration @ligo.org · 25/09/2026
The latest issue of the @ligomagazine.bsky.social is now out with all the latest #GravitationalWaves news! Read it for free at ligo.org/wp-content/u... 🔭🧪⚛️🎶
LIGO Magazine Issue 29

A+ bigger beamsplitters: A major upgrade for LIGO's A+ phase, p 18
GWTC-5.0 - the catalogue continues: 161 events added to the collection, p 6
LIGO Virgo KAGRA teamwork: Gravitational-wave autotune, p 8
Sept. 2026 LVK Meeting in Pune: GW research in India, p 11
A decade on... LISA Pathfinder persists in discovery, p 28
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LISA Community @lisacommunity.bsky.social · 16/09/2026
What do black holes and comic books have in common? More than you'd think. 📖 Read it for free: blackholecomicbook.com
A starry space scene with a glowing orange-black figure representing the black hole and its accretion disk, a small character and a floating figure at left, and the text “BLACK HOLES” in orange letters.
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Christopher Berry @cplberry.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
🔭 Anyone interested in applying for a RAS Fellowship or 1851 Fellowship at @uofgravity.bsky.social, please get in touch! We have a great gravitational-wave group ⚛️ These fellowships are great for those coming straight from a PhD. We have internal deadlines, so we need to know who's interested soon
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Reposted by Dr Shanika Galaudage
LIGO Scientific Collaboration @ligo.org · 14/09/2026
Happy birthday #GW150914! 11 years ago today, we caught our first gravitational wave, and founded a new type of astronomy A decade later, we now have hundreds of observations! 🔭🧪🎂
Classic plot showing GW150914. Filtered data from LIGO Livingston and LIGO Hanford are shown, both show the characteristic signal of a binary black hole. Crucially, data from the two observatories agree, indicating a real signal.
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Dr Shanika Galaudage @astronerdika.bsky.social · 14/09/2026
OTD 11 years ago we discovered an event that birthed a whole new field of astronomy ✨ Happy Birthday #GW150914! 🥳 #GravitationalWaves #BlackHoles
Image of Figure 1 of the discovery paper showing an eight panel plot with 2 columns and 4 rows. Each row shows the observed gravitational wave signal over time, reconstructed signal against waveform template over time, the residual over time and frequency time graph showing the signal amplitude in colour map. Each column shows the signal observed in each of the LIGO detectors.
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Reposted by Dr Shanika Galaudage
ARC Tracker @arc-tracker.bsky.social · 09/09/2026
#ARCschedule Sep26 Outcomes possible for Industrial Transformation schemes. FT26 already announced. Other events: 🔹Open: 2027 rounds of Future Fellowships & Industrial Tran. schemes 🔹Selection meetings: Laureate Fellowships (but outcomes in Mar ’27 🤡) Data ▶️ docs.google.com/spreadsheets...
ARC grant scheme timetable, including open, close and anticipated outcome announcement dates for Expressions Of Interest and full applications, plus rejoinder periods and selection meeting dates.
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Reposted by Dr Shanika Galaudage
Prof Anna Watts @profannawatts.bsky.social · 08/09/2026
Join us! We are advertising not one but TWO new observation-oriented tenure track faculty positions, in the areas of massive stars/compact binaries and exoplanets. Links in thread! [Genuine footage from our staff meetings, seen below]
static.klipy.com
Avengers Assemble with Thor
Alt: Avengers Assemble - camera pans around the Avengers on a New York (?) street. Thor chairs the staff meeting.
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Reposted by Dr Shanika Galaudage
Mayor Zohran Kwame Mamdani @mayor.nyc.gov · 08/09/2026
For years, New Yorkers have demanded access to City records about the lasting health impacts of the horrific September 11th attacks. For years, they have been denied and ignored. That ends today. nyc.gov/sept11docs
nyc.gov
September 11 Docs
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ARC Tracker @arc-tracker.bsky.social · 08/09/2026
To the many unsuccessful Future Fellowship applicants who got great scores (& feedback) from their peer ("Detailed") reviewers, but much poorer scores from their ARC College ("General") assessors, here's an old thread explaining why this happens👇 And, by the way, I'm sorry – the system ain't great.
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ARC Tracker @arc-tracker.bsky.social · 08/09/2026
🚨 #FutureFellowships #FT26 announcement: ❗️Outcomes announced publicly for ARC Future Fellowships 2026❗️ See ARC's RMS for list ➡️ rms.arc.gov.au/RMS/Report/Download/… /bot
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Mary Woessner @marynwoessner.bsky.social · 08/09/2026
Those numbers look pretty similar to their 'inaccurate' release of results the other week...
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Australian Research Council @arc-gov-au.bsky.social · 07/09/2026
Tomorrow (Tuesday 8 Sept), we will announce the outcome of the ARC Future Fellowships (FT26). Stay tuned for the update!
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Dr Shanika Galaudage @astronerdika.bsky.social · 04/09/2026
Celebrating this chonky neutron star by adding it to my "How dense are neutron stars?" notebook. Find out what volume of this neutron star weighs as much as all of humanity on Earth right now! shanikagalaudage.github.io/scicomm-outr... Spoiler: it's tiny!
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Dr Shanika Galaudage @astronerdika.bsky.social · 22/08/2026
Let's do a calculation together of just how dense neutron star matter really is; using a real neutron star's measurements 😎 Watch along, and try it for yourself here: shanikagalaudage.github.io/scicomm-outr... ✨ (the video is longer than 3min, so it's in two parts!) #NeutronStarWeek #SciComm
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European Space Agency @esa.int · 02/09/2026
A look back at Sophie Adenot's third spacewalk. Together with NASA astronaut Jessica Meir, Sophie successfully completed US EVA-99, spending 6 hours 49 minutes outside the International Space Station. 📽 Video courtesy of sen.com
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ARC Tracker @arc-tracker.bsky.social · 02/09/2026
#ARCSenateOrder Aug26: The ARC made no grant recommendations to the Minister in August. See www.arc.gov.au/about/our-organisati… /bot
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Dr Shanika Galaudage @astronerdika.bsky.social · 31/08/2026
The suspense is painful. But FT26 announcements are now late right?
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Space.com @space.com · 30/08/2026
Trump celebrates launch of Roman Space Telescope, a mission he tried to cancel www.space.com/space-explor...
space.com
Trump celebrates launch of Roman Space Telescope, a mission he tried to cancel
President Trump interrupted a NASA press conference today (Aug. 30) to congratulate the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope team on a successful launch.
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Scientific American @sciam.bsky.social · 30/08/2026
NASA’s Roman Space Telescope could uncover oodles of potentially Earth-like exoplanets during its survey of our galaxy’s central, star-packed bulge. But astronomers probably won’t be able to learn much more about most of them.
scientificamerican.com
NASA is about to take a good, long look at the Milky Way's massive bulge
The Roman Space Telescope will spend more than a quarter of its time staring at the Milky Way’s bulge, a star-packed central region of our galaxy that may swarm with small, rocky exoplanets
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Kate @rebelraising.bsky.social · 30/08/2026
And the launch of the telescope named after her is being used as an advert for a company owned by a man who slashed funding and recognition for equalities work in the US government, under a present who deleted women's achievements from government websites.
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Dr Shanika Galaudage @astronerdika.bsky.social · 30/08/2026
That launch was beautiful ✨ And off she goes 🥹 Safe journey onwards Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope! So excited for the main mission objectives of understanding dark matter, dark energy and observing planetary systems. But I am most excited for the UNEXPECTED! #NASARoman
View from a launch vehicle camera showing the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope during separation, moving away, framed by large cylindrical structures against the pitch black background of space. Off she goes to L2!

NASA telemetry stats at the bottom reads T+00:31:58, speed 36,342 km/h, and altitude 797 km.

This image is a screenshot from the NASA livestream of the launch!
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Reposted by Dr Shanika Galaudage
Laurence Datrier @asleepywanderer.bsky.social · 29/08/2026
The little dopamine rush from citations has convinced me that they're just social media likes for academics
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Dr Shanika Galaudage @astronerdika.bsky.social · 29/08/2026
My choice in nail polish is frequently influenced by the cosmos! 💅✨ Can you guess what the shade name is? Hint: it’s a thing that can make neutron stars! Make your guesses, and no cheating! #Astronomy #SciComm #WomenInSTEM
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CosmicRami 🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍⚧️ @rami.spaceaustralia.com · 28/08/2026
It’s been a little while since I’ve had a chance to do this, but it’s Saturday morning and I have a little free time. Just processed the Kepler Supernova image from #JWST 🔭 Can’t wait to hear about this science! 📸 PI: @danmil.bsky.social /NASA/ESA/CSA/STSCI 🎛️ MIRI f2100w/f770w
A semi-spherical shell of expanding gas that is the remnant from a supernova
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Dr Shanika Galaudage @astronerdika.bsky.social · 28/08/2026
It’s time for a tour through the Universe to meet some iconic neutron stars: pulsars, magnetars, mergers & more! ✨ We’ll start 130 million light-years away, with two neutron stars that are no more… 👀 #NeutronStars #Astronomy #Astrophysics
Infographic introducing a tour of iconic neutron stars. Large white text reads, “Meet some iconic Neutron Stars:” with orange handwritten text below reading, “pulsars, magnetars & mergers across the cosmos!”

A pale-blue neutron star with looping magnetic-field lines and a curved dotted beam appears at lower right.

The background is a map of the Universe, with faint dashed, logarithmically spaced distance contours labelled in light-years.

Created by Shanika Galaudage.
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NSF–DOE Rubin Observatory @rubinobservatory.org · 27/08/2026
We’re #hiring a Senior Full Stack Engineer to join NSF–DOE Rubin Observatory's Education & Public Outreach team! 👩‍💻👨‍💻 You'll build interactive, data-driven web experiences that bring Rubin data and science to the world 🌌 👉 Learn more and apply soon: ow.ly/Jajv50ZFUQf 🧪🔭☄️
Night sky filled with stars above Rubin Observatory with text: "We are hiring: Senior Full Stack Engineer"
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Reposted by Dr Shanika Galaudage
Emily L. Hauser (she/her) ❌👑 @emilylhauser.bsky.social · 26/08/2026
"We should never forget that Dolly Parton chose not to be a billionaire."
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Reposted by Dr Shanika Galaudage
CosmicRami 🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍⚧️ @rami.spaceaustralia.com · 22/08/2026
Magnetars are neutron stars -- they just have these unbelievably strong magnetic fields, much stronger than other neutron stars. These powerful magnetic fields produce weird behaviour, like X-ray bursts and giant flares. Magnetars are cool, but also, terrifying. #NeutronStarWeek
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Abdul El-Sayed @abdulelsayed.bsky.social · 23/08/2026
We're being told that if we sacrifice the rights of some people, then the rest of us get to keep our rights. We all know that's some BS.
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Reposted by Dr Shanika Galaudage
CosmicRami 🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍⚧️ @rami.spaceaustralia.com · 23/08/2026
This really is a neat little calculator made by @astronerdika.bsky.social Have a play with it. Crush all of humanity down to a sugar cube, working out the equivalent density of a neutron star. shanikagalaudage.github.io/scicomm-outr... 🔭🧪
Plot showing time on x-axis and number of humans ever born at nuetron star densiy on y-axis
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Misadventures In Astro @misadventures.astronomer.social · 17/08/2026
Since there was a request to drop cool neutron star facts, here's mine! While exoplanet discovery feels common place now, the VERY first discovery of an exoplanet was actually around a neutron star back in 1990 (confirmed in 1992) using the famous Arecibo radio telescope! #NeutronStarWeek
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Dr Shanika Galaudage @astronerdika.bsky.social · 22/08/2026
So I decided to plot the amount of human that has accumulated overtime, in terms of neutron star matter in millilitres Because why not? 🤣 Make the plot here: shanikagalaudage.github.io/scicomm-outr... (and yes, a tbsp in Australia is different; happy #NationalScienceWeek 🤣) #NeutronStarWeek
A plot showing time on the axis on a logarithmic scale tracking the amount of humans in terms of neutron star matter on the Y axis. This plot is based on calculations that assume that a neutron star has a density of 3.3×10 to the power of 11 kg/cm³, and that the average human mass is 50 kg. We find that all of humanity that has ever lived is around 17.6 mL of neutron star matter.
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Dr Shanika Galaudage @astronerdika.bsky.social · 22/08/2026
Let's do a calculation together of just how dense neutron star matter really is; using a real neutron star's measurements 😎 Watch along, and try it for yourself here: shanikagalaudage.github.io/scicomm-outr... ✨ (the video is longer than 3min, so it's in two parts!) #NeutronStarWeek #SciComm
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LIGO Scientific Collaboration @ligo.org · 22/08/2026
We have not yet detected gravitational waves from isolated neutron stars, but this is already telling us something about what they are made from ligo.org/science-summ... #NeutronStarWeek 🧪🔭
ligo.org
Neutron stars: smoother than billiard balls – unfortunately – LSC – LIGO Scientific Collaboration
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Dr Shanika Galaudage @astronerdika.bsky.social · 22/08/2026
The #NeutronStarWeek party will continue with me for a couple more days as I finish up some stuff! (And it’s still Aug 21 in this part of the world!)
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CosmicRami 🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍⚧️ @rami.spaceaustralia.com · 22/08/2026
Time to get stuck into the QandA for the last bit of #NeutronStarWeek! Thanks to everyone who sent in fun questions ... I'll answer some and @astronerdika.bsky.social is going to answer the others too. For this one ... it would be a second or two! If NS was at Moon distance... ~10 mins!
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Duncan K Galloway @duncankgalloway.bsky.social · 21/08/2026
I was late to #NeutronStarWeek but partly because I was busy working on some new results on my favourite kind of neutron star, the friendly (binary) kind – they have a generous companion, who donates gas that falls onto the neutron star ("accretes") and collects there
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Dr Shanika Galaudage @astronerdika.bsky.social · 21/08/2026
GW170817 gets the limelight because we got lucky* and saw it's electromagnetic counterpart. But #GW190425 is a pair of neutron stars that really puzzled us because their total mass was much larger than ones we see in our galaxy! #NeutronStarWeek 📸 arXiv:2001.01761 @ligo.org @egovirgo.bsky.social
Plot comparing the total mass of GW190425 with known binary neutron stars in the Milky Way. The 10 Galactic systems cluster between about 2.5 and 2.9 solar masses, shown by a grey histogram, dashed black distribution, and green individual measurements. GW190425 lies well above them at roughly 3.4 solar masses. This is figure 5 from arXiv:2001.01761
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Dr Shanika Galaudage @astronerdika.bsky.social · 21/08/2026
Don’t you just love it when a neutron star gobbles up their companion star? And as a result they can spin faster! My favourite accreting Neutron Star? Sco X-1 🩵 It's an example of an LMXB = Low Mass X-ray Binary #NeutronStarWeek
A detailed scientific illustration by @astronerdika depicting the anatomy of a low-mass X-ray binary (LMXB) system. On the right side of the image is a large, orangeish/yellowish star labelled "low mass companion star." Gas from this star is flowing toward the left, through a narrow stream labelled "mass transfer via filled Roche lobe," into an accretion disk around a much smaller, dense object labelled "neutron star."

The accretion disk is bright and disk-shaped, spiralling around the neutron star at the centre. A region where the gas stream impacts the outer edge of the disk is labelled "hot spot (bright in optical emission)." The neutron star, at the core of the disk, is further zoomed in on with an inset box at the bottom left of the image.

In the inset, magnetic field lines are illustrated surrounding the neutron star. The gas, after entering the inner disk, is channelled by the magnetic field lines onto the magnetic poles of the neutron star, creating localised bright areas labelled "hot spot (bright in X-ray emission)." These regions emit intense X-rays due to the high-energy infall of material. The flow of gas toward the neutron star is labelled "infalling gas."
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Ashwathi Nair @ashwathinair.bsky.social · 21/08/2026
Thank you @astronerdika.bsky.social and @rami.spaceaustralia.com for making #NeutronStarWeek happen! Everyone loves GW170817, so I spent the last three years of my PhD giving a lot of attention to GW190425 by studying which formation channel is most likely to form heavy GW190425-like DNSs!
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Dr Shanika Galaudage @astronerdika.bsky.social · 21/08/2026
I’ll just leave this here… but now I feel I am obligated to say this: Please do not pet or cuddle a neutron star. You may admire it from afar. #NeutronStarWeek
A screenshot from a comment section of a video titled “colliding neutron stars” which has a comment saying “why did I read that as cuddling neutron stars, some would try though it is dangerous” and the response from the creator Shanika saying “cuddling a neutron star… that would probably be my final act”
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Dr Shanika Galaudage @astronerdika.bsky.social · 21/08/2026
Sometimes the less extreme object makes the better laboratory 👀 Neutron stars give us something black holes don’t: a ridiculously precise clock 😎 Put a pulsar in a three-body system, and suddenly you have an awesome way to put gravity to the test! #NeutronStarWeek
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Dr Shanika Galaudage @astronerdika.bsky.social · 21/08/2026
WOAH 🤯 Check out this neutron star folks. It’s like getting a pizza with the lot! 😎 Radio bursts?! X-ray Outbursts?! And you can think of vacuum birefringence as a weird quantum effect where a very strong magnetic field can make even “empty space” change how light travels! #NeutronStarWeek
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CosmicRami 🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍⚧️ @rami.spaceaustralia.com · 21/08/2026
Last thread for #NeutronStarWeek! A collection of articles, visualisations and fun facts showing how awesome neutron stars (and esp. pulsars) are! Let's start with this .... Neutron stars are TINY! ~20km across. Let's zoom in to one hovering over Sydney! 📸 Daniel Wysocki and HanGyeol Suh
Simulated graphic of a neutron star hovering over Earth with Earth's curvature showingSimulated graphic of a neutron star hovering over the coastline of NSW in AustraliaSimulated graphic of a neutron star hovering over the city of Sydney with coastline showingZoomed in simulated graphic of a neutron star hovering over Sydney
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Dr Shanika Galaudage @astronerdika.bsky.social · 20/08/2026
I sense this may stir up some drama… but what is your favourite neutron star? the name + the reason why ✨ (I need this information for… reasons…) #NeutronStarWeek
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CosmicRami 🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍⚧️ @rami.spaceaustralia.com · 19/08/2026
#DYK that the first planets to be confirmed outside our Solar System were actually orbiting a pulsar? Due to the incredibly precise timing of pulsars, we can see these tiny planets moving the pulsar back and forth a little. Another #NeutronStarWeek 🧵👇 📸 D. Frail/A. Wolszczan
Plot showing year on the x-axis and pulsar period on the y-axis. The data traces several up and down curves, indicating the presence of planets orbiting a pulsar
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