We report on Day 3 of the winter AAS meeting in Seattle, WA. Highlights include updates in X-ray astronomy, the discovery of a second repeating FRB, an exploration of astrochemistry in planet-forming disks, and a look at the 2020 Astronomy Decadal Survey.
Today’s paper explores whether magnetars could be the instigator behind some strange supernovae.
Has a counterpart finally been detected for the ever-elusive fast radio bursts that have been detected outside of our Galaxy? Well, that’s a tricky question…
Extreme transient events are pushing the limits of our standard explosion models, but magnetars may save the day.
The authors of this article observe a sudden slowing in the rotation rate of a known magnetar. Although hundreds of glitches (a sudden increase in rotation rate) have been observed in radio pulsars and magnetars, this is the first direct evidence for an anti-glitch.
A couple of weeks ago we put out a call for descriptions of research being done by undergraduates, and we got a great response! Today we’re publishing the first installment.