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A/Prof Natasha Hurley-Walker

@colourfulcosmos.bsky.social
809 followers 370 following 32 posts

Radio astronomer, transport cyclist, board gamer, mum of two, survivor of the great Xodus 2024

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A/Prof Natasha Hurley-Walker @colourfulcosmos.bsky.social · 29/10/2025
Or have a play with our interactive optical/radio viewer and watch our video about it here: www.icrar.org/gleam-x-gala...
icrar.org
A new, expansive view of the Milky Way reveals our Galaxy in unprecedented radio colour - ICRAR
Astronomers from the International Centre of Radio Astronomy Research (ICRAR) have created the largest low-frequency radio colour image of the Milky Way ever assembled.
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A/Prof Natasha Hurley-Walker @colourfulcosmos.bsky.social · 29/10/2025
Read about it in The Conversation: theconversation.com/new-images-r...
theconversation.com
New images reveal the Milky Way’s stunning galactic plane in more detail than ever before
The things we can see with our eyes are just one layer of the richness of the night sky.
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A/Prof Natasha Hurley-Walker @colourfulcosmos.bsky.social · 29/10/2025
We used the Murchison Widefield Array telescope to make these observations back in 2013 to 2018, but it's taken until the last few years for the computers and algorithms to catch up with the data! This view won't be bettered until the low-frequency part of the SKA observatory is complete.
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A/Prof Natasha Hurley-Walker @colourfulcosmos.bsky.social · 29/10/2025
The map is ten times more sensitive than and covers twice the area of my previous efforts with GLEAM, and was created by my amazing PhD student Silvia Mantovanini! She worked with a supercomputer at @pawseycentre.bsky.social for a whole year of her thesis to create this.
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A/Prof Natasha Hurley-Walker @colourfulcosmos.bsky.social · 29/10/2025
Today in PASA we published a new image of our Milky Way at low radio frequencies, in unprecedented colour and detail. Here's just a tiny piece of it -- the whole thing is ten times bigger! We're seeing high energy electrons whirl around cosmic magnetic fields from exploded stars, and more!
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A/Prof Natasha Hurley-Walker @colourfulcosmos.bsky.social · 02/09/2025
Congratulations @tamarastro.bsky.social on your election as a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Science @science.org.au ! #ShineDome25
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A/Prof Natasha Hurley-Walker @colourfulcosmos.bsky.social · 16/06/2025
At the #SKAO 2025 Science Meeting in Gorlitz, Germany. And I'm in the Gods! Enough astronomers to fill a theatre ✨
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A/Prof Natasha Hurley-Walker @colourfulcosmos.bsky.social · 31/05/2025
The US budget cuts to NASA and the NSF are horrifying. Anyone in the world can sign this petition to reverse them - consider adding your name? www.congressweb.com/PlanetarySoc...
congressweb.com
Tell Congress: Save NASA Science
The current administration's 2026 budget request includes a staggering 47% cut to NASA's science programs as part of a 25% cut to NASA overall. This is an extinction-level event for the Earth and spac...
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Reposted by A/Prof Natasha Hurley-Walker
Trajan Hammonds @starlord37.bsky.social · 08/02/2025
Last night I found out that the NSF math postdoctoral fellowship I applied for is being deleted because it does not comply with Trump’s executive orders on DEI in the federal government. I’m going to answer some FAQs and share some thoughts about this ordeal in this thread 1/n
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A/Prof Natasha Hurley-Walker @colourfulcosmos.bsky.social · 23/01/2025
Perth folks, I will be chatting with Rachel Rayner, Science Explainer, at the FRINGE Festival! This is a huge first for me -- next year, maybe I can do the same while fire juggling?! In all seriousness come and support me and other scientists :D Tickets here: fringeworld.com.au/whats_on/aus...
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A/Prof Natasha Hurley-Walker @colourfulcosmos.bsky.social · 21/01/2025
The slide with that moon certainly provoked some nervous laughter. A lot of audience members with Majora's Mask childhood trauma 😆
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A/Prof Natasha Hurley-Walker @colourfulcosmos.bsky.social · 21/01/2025
I only had room for the Akkala Ancient Tech lab, but duly noted for next time :D
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A/Prof Natasha Hurley-Walker @colourfulcosmos.bsky.social · 20/01/2025
Loving all the requests for slides and recordings, but it was a very participatory experience, where I had folks make measurements, pitch ideas, and generally argue just like a real academic conference. Happy to run it again -- DM me!
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A/Prof Natasha Hurley-Walker @colourfulcosmos.bsky.social · 20/01/2025
*I* would be interested in the historical influences on video games! I'm sort of embarrassed to say that I learned about the Muslim conquest of Spain in the 700s because I went down an internet rabbithole of trying to find out why the Gerudo Valley theme tune is so amazing.
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A/Prof Natasha Hurley-Walker @colourfulcosmos.bsky.social · 20/01/2025
Not my usual research topic, but a bit of fun for a local SFF convention :) I analysed the astrophysics of the Legend of Zelda games -- using the same techniques real astronomers use! Good fun, educational, and the audience loved it!
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A/Prof Natasha Hurley-Walker @colourfulcosmos.bsky.social · 16/01/2025
Fabulous to see this new long-period radio transient published! The longest period yet -- and it has interpulses, strongly implying a 'lighthouse' of radio waves passing over our line-of-sight.
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A/Prof Natasha Hurley-Walker @colourfulcosmos.bsky.social · 12/12/2024
Is it a selection effect?
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A/Prof Natasha Hurley-Walker @colourfulcosmos.bsky.social · 12/12/2024
May you add me too, please?
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Reposted by A/Prof Natasha Hurley-Walker
Chris Lintott @chrislintott.bsky.social · 10/12/2024
Beautiful writing from the wonderful @aussiastronomer.bsky.social. Sort of about our Stargazing Live exoplanet hunt, but also not.
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A/Prof Natasha Hurley-Walker @colourfulcosmos.bsky.social · 10/12/2024
I think I've worked out why the timeline in For All Mankind is divergent -- no, it's not Korolev surviving his surgery. It's that their Moon is completely different from our Moon ;)
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A/Prof Natasha Hurley-Walker @colourfulcosmos.bsky.social · 10/12/2024
It's always reassuring to hear that data reduction rabbitholes are extant all across astronomy and not just one's own domain 😅
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A/Prof Natasha Hurley-Walker @colourfulcosmos.bsky.social · 06/12/2024
Seconded!
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A/Prof Natasha Hurley-Walker @colourfulcosmos.bsky.social · 05/12/2024
Starter packs are such a great way of getting your BlueSky community off the ground! I am so grateful for these as I rebuild from the ashes of Twitter. Here is a starter pack for female and other minority astonomers 🔭 put together by @kanaya-malakar.bsky.social : bsky.app/starter-pack...
bsky.app
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A/Prof Natasha Hurley-Walker @colourfulcosmos.bsky.social · 05/12/2024
I was today years old when I realised that NASA/ADS have deprecated the "^" for first author, and it's not just my internet connection.
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Reposted by A/Prof Natasha Hurley-Walker
SpaceAustralia.com @spaceaustralia.com · 03/12/2024
An emerging class of objects in #RadioAstronomy, mostly discovered in the last few years, still can't be explained. Two new multi-wavelength studies might have answers. www.spaceaustralia.com/feature/mult... by @cosmicrami.com #SpaceAustralia 🔭🧪 📸 @colourfulcosmos.bsky.social /MWA/Curtin/ICRAR
Looking out across the red desert region of Western Australia. In the distance is a hill, and the ground has a red Earth colour. In the foreground is a large square metal mesh placed on the ground. Atop it are 16 spider-looking dipole antennas, arranged in a 4 x 4 grid. This is one of the MWA stations. graphic showing a single magnetar that has beams coming from its poles and is surrounded by magnetic field lines
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A/Prof Natasha Hurley-Walker @colourfulcosmos.bsky.social · 04/12/2024
This reads like the unit was originally "ferrets" and it has been converted from metric to imperial
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A/Prof Natasha Hurley-Walker @colourfulcosmos.bsky.social · 04/12/2024
Doing media interviews from home while looking after my sick kid... Yes, that's an outdoor trestle table from Bunnings 😂
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A/Prof Natasha Hurley-Walker @colourfulcosmos.bsky.social · 02/12/2024
Haha, this one is definitely a win for #TeamWhiteDwarf ... will #TeamMagnetar strike back soon though? Watch this space ;)
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A/Prof Natasha Hurley-Walker @colourfulcosmos.bsky.social · 02/12/2024
Out now in @theconversation.com, I write about our discovery of the first long-period radio transient with an optical counterpart -- our first clue to the progenitors of this mysterious class of objects! theconversation.com/astronomers-...
theconversation.com
Astronomers have pinpointed the origin of mysterious repeating radio bursts from space
By searching sparsely populated regions of the galaxy, astronomers have for the first time found the source of a kind of signal that has puzzled them for years.
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A/Prof Natasha Hurley-Walker @colourfulcosmos.bsky.social · 01/12/2024
Hope he covers circumzenithal arcs. My favourite kind of rainbow 🌈
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A/Prof Natasha Hurley-Walker @colourfulcosmos.bsky.social · 01/12/2024
The Dark Emu. Because seeing a huge emu stretching out above you is pretty incredible. No equipment required: just dark skies and the Southern Hemisphere.
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A/Prof Natasha Hurley-Walker @colourfulcosmos.bsky.social · 29/11/2024
Stunning yellow halo at the moment in Perth. Must be a mix of clouds and smoke to generate both the refraction and the eerie colours. Any meteorologists in my follows who can weigh in?
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A/Prof Natasha Hurley-Walker @colourfulcosmos.bsky.social · 27/11/2024
I agree. Better to wear the white hat. It would have been wrong to release this flaw publicly. Thank you for the detailed explanation, and all your hard work!
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A/Prof Natasha Hurley-Walker @colourfulcosmos.bsky.social · 27/11/2024
Out today in ApJL! Our discovery of the first long-period radio transient with a stellar counterpart: www.icrar.org/binarytransi... At least *some* of these objects might be explicable as binary systems!
icrar.org
Astronomers find possible source for mystery radio signals - ICRAR
New data suggests mysterious 'long period transients' could be two orbiting objects, which together create a powerful repeating radio signal.
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A/Prof Natasha Hurley-Walker @colourfulcosmos.bsky.social · 26/11/2024
Starting the day (and my timeline here) with the fantastic news that my Discovery grant proposal with Prof Nanda Rea has been funded by the Australian Research Council! Over the next three years we'll be investigating the mysterious long-period radio transients using telescopes around the world!
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