back to article Oz stargazers serve up interstellar noodles

Stargazers from Australia's Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization (CSIRO) have recorded the effect of interstellar gas "lenses", which interfere with quasar radio wave emissions. Described as dark "'lumps' in the thin gas that lies between the stars in our galaxy", these structures were first hinted at …

  1. Tom Chiverton 1
    Alien

    Aliens !

    1. Hairless Biker

      You're explanation..

      for anything slightly peculiar is aliens, isn't it?

      You lose your keys, it's aliens. A picture falls off the wall, it's aliens. That time we used up an entire bog roll in a day, you thought that was aliens, too!

      </Lister>

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: You're explanation..

        Please, please blame aliens for that "you're" too...

        1. Hairless Biker
          Facepalm

          Re: You're explanation..

          In the words of DEATH...

          "OH BUGGER!"

  2. Brewster's Angle Grinder Silver badge
    Headmaster

    Denuding scare quotes leaves you an illegal bareward token

    ...the thin interstellar atmosphere...

    It's the interstellar medium; not an atmosphere. The press release includes scare quotes ("They figured out this behaviour was the work of our Galaxy’s invisible ‘atmosphere’...") to keep us pedants happy.

    1. Stoneshop
      Headmaster

      Re: Denuding scare quotes leaves you an illegal bareward token

      Bareward?

      1. Roj Blake Silver badge

        Re: Denuding scare quotes leaves you an illegal bareward token

        Bareward is a perfectly cromulent word.

  3. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Interesting stuff

    It's interesting because if the radio waves from the quasar are "varying wildly in strength" it suggests that whatever is causing the variations has high density/intensity but, at the same time, the variations are relatively rapid, suggesting that whatever is causing the variations is also either relatively small, at least at astronomical scales, or very big and moving very, very quickly indeed.

    I wouldn't have thought that interstellar gas lenses fit either scenario very well; if the variations in the lenses are small enough to match the rate of variation then it's difficult to see how they could be intense enough to produce the degree of variation but, on the other hand, if they were large and moving quickly then they'd be interacting with other interstellar gas and radiating on their own.

  4. allthecoolshortnamesweretaken

    I hope it turns out to be a noodle - I'm allergic to hazelnuts.

    This is all a bit confusing, but then quasars are strange beasts.

    Anyway, kudos to CSIRO for some top notch boffinry.

  5. DryBones
    Thumb Up

    I for one...

    All hail his noodley appendages.

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