Press conference at AAS 235

© ASTRON / JIVE / Photo: Marieke Baan

On January 6th, 2020, we presented our paper on the precise localisation of a 2nd repeating fast radio burst (FRB) source at a press conference hosted at the 235th meeting of the American Astronomical Society (AAS) in Honolulu, Hawai'i. The 7-minute pitch to reporters was given by Benito Marcote (JIVE) and Kenzie Nimmo (ASTRON PhD student at UvA). Also pictured here are co-authors Jason Hessels (ASTRON/UvA) and Casey Law (Caltech). Dwingeloo-based co-authors also include Zsolt Paragi and Aard Keimpema (JIVE) and Cees Bassa (ASTRON). Thanks to the PR work of Gina Maffey (JIVE) and Alice Spruit (ASTRON) - along with a nice movie by Bruno van Wayenburg and artwork by Danielle Futselaar - the story has been covered by over 100 news outlets world-wide, including CNN, Scientific American, and Sky & Telescope. Most importantly, Captain America ensured that FRBs reached a whole new audience, when his alter ego, Chris Evans, tweeted about the results to 13.5 million fans.

You can watch the full "Things That Go Bump in the Night" press conference here. Benito and Kenzie start their FRB talk at 13:05, just after the latest results from LIGO/Virgo are presented.