Your not-so-local newscast for Mar 4, 2016

Michael Richmond
Mar 4, 2016 (of course)

• The weather ... on Pluto
  Hold on -- we have an update (thanks to NASA and New Horizons reported Jan 28, 2016)
• BREAKING      Look -- up in the sky! It's a bird. It's a plane. It's a FLARING STAR! (maybe)
• Business: New Opportunities on Planet Nine?
• Fast Radio Bursts: Point / Counterpoint

  Wait, they can repeat???

Abstract from Batygin and Brown, AJ 151, 22 (2016) (or look here for a local copy.

Figure 2A from Batygin and Brown, AJ 151, 22 (2016)

Figure 2B from Batygin and Brown, AJ 151, 22 (2016)

Finally, we've tracked down the identity of a Fast Radio Burst!

It's inside a distant galaxy, at a redshift of z=0.49!

Figure 1 Keane et al., Nature, 530, 453 (2016)

Figure 2 Keane et al., Nature, 530, 453 (2016)

Not so fast ...

Abstract from Williams and Berger, astro-ph 1602.08434

Wait, Fast Radio Bursts can repeat??

Most models of fast radio bursts have involved catastrophic explosions, which ought to leave NOTHING behind.

But one group of radio astronomers has seen a number of bursts coming from the same location ....

Table 1 from Spitler et al., Nature online, Mar 2, 2016

  Q:   When was MJD  56233?   


       When was MJD  57159?


       When was MJD  57175?

Nov 1, 2012, then May 16, 2015, then June 1, 2015, respectively.

Figure 1 from Spitler et al., Nature online, Mar 2, 2016

Copyright © Michael Richmond. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons License.