Astronomy on Tap is coming soon to Melbourne ✨
Come along to learn about astronomy, current research, and have some drinks doing so!
#AstroOnTap
06.11.2025 10:21
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Astronomy on Tap is coming soon to Melbourne ✨
Come along to learn about astronomy, current research, and have some drinks doing so!
#AstroOnTap
In the midst of the madness of submitting my PhD thesis last week, I also submitted my 2nd paper which is now out on arXiv!
Check it out to learn about a rare ultra fast dwarf nova we discovered with KNTraP ✨
arxiv.org/abs/2510.26682
#astronomy 🔭
Genuinely unreal to have my first paper recognised like this - thank you to the editorial board for considering my work! ✨
Spot the difference 😤🔭
With a lot of tough things happening in the world riggr now, the misinformation that stars are dead when you wish on them feels very mean spirited 🥺 luckily, I looked into it and worked out that the stars we wish on are very much alive 🌟 🧪🔭
Abstract of the KNTraP paper. Text: Compact binary mergers detectable in gravitational waves can be accompanied by a kilonova, an electromagnetic transient powered by radioactive decay of newly synthesised r-process elements. A few kilonova candidates have been observed during short gamma-ray burst follow-up, and one found associated with a gravitational wave detection, GW170817. However, robust kilonova candidates are yet to be found in un-triggered, wide-field optical surveys, that is, a search not requiring an initial gravitational wave or gamma-ray burst trigger. Here we present the first observing run for the Kilonova and Transients Program (KNTraP) using the Dark Energy Camera. The first KNTraP run ran for 11 nights, covering 31 fields at a nightly cadence in two filters. The program can detect transients beyond the LIGO/Virgo/KAGRA horizon, be agnostic to the merger orientation, avoid the Sun and/or Galactic plane, and produces high cadence multi-wavelength light curves. The data were processed nightly in real-time for rapid identification of transient candidates, allowing for follow-up of interesting candidates before they faded away. Three fast-rising candidates were identified in real-time, however none had the characteristics of the kilonova AT2017gfo associated with GW170817 or with the expected evolution for kilonovae from our fade-rate models. After the run, the data were reprocessed, then subjected to stringent filtering and model fitting to search for kilonovae offline. Multiple KNTraP runs (3+) are expected to detect kilonovae via this optical-only search method. No kilonovae were detected in this first KNTraP run using our selection criteria, constraining the KN rate to R<1.8×10^5 Gpc−3 yr−1.
Plot showing the volume per night covered by a survey. Volume increases towards the top right corner of the plot. DES survey is shown leftmost, then further right is KNTraP with multiple volumes demonstrating the balance between of number of fields/area on sky observed per night versus the depth achieved, both in dark and bright sky time. Rightmost shown are projected KWFI nightly volumes.
My first first-author paper just dropped on arXiv ✨👩🔬🧪🔭
Introducing the KiloNova and Transients Program (KNTraP), a search specifically designed to find a kilonova. Check it out here to see the methods developed to scour the data for kilonova candidates, and what we found:
arxiv.org/abs/2411.16136
Huge win from @franzanth.bsky.social creating a Content Scraper Blocklist: bsky.app/profile/cont...
It's a blocklist for the kinds of engagement bait accounts that repost stolen content, often with misleading captions.
Hi! Can I please be added?
Here's my ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0002-21...
Cross-section view of a river, whose flow speeds are indicated by grey arrows, and increase from the right to the left. Fish are facing left or right, but for us as external observers, only the fish to the right of the line marked H can make headway towards the right. The fish on the left are in water that is moving faster to the left than they can swim to the right. In effect, H is something like a horizon - nothing that has passed the horizon from the right can subsequently escape into the region to the right of H.
Don't mind me. Just illustrating a text on the river model for black holes. Some fish swimming at the "speed of fish", in a river whose flow speed gets faster from right to left. H is the "river horizon". An external observer will never see a fish that is to the left of H swim to the right. 🧪🔭⚛️
We base expectations on the intrinsic binary neutron star merger (BNS) rate from gravitational wave detectors, but there are multiple rates from different methods (for a summary+fig below: link.springer.com/article/10.1...).
However, observationally we’re looking at <1 per year with current tech
A kilonova occurs when a neutron star merges with another neutron star or with a black hole. The kilonova itself is the electromagnetic emission bursting from this event, and is very rare!
Context: Me at the ASA Annual Scientific Meeting 2023, with my poster about the KiloNova and Transients Program (KNTraP), a survey optimised to find KiloNova without gravitational wave or gamma-ray burst triggers. Won People’s Choice Award 😎 Description: Photo of a woman standing next to a scientific poster in the style of a detective’s corkboard.
Hello!
My name is Natasha and I’m an astrophysics PhD candidate. I work with data from optical telescopes to search for fast evolving explosions in the sky 💥 On the lookout for the strange and unusual, but mainly I’m searching for kilonovae 🌟🔭👩🔬
I’m currently an astrophysics PhD student, I do fast transient astronomy in optical wavelengths :)
yes
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