With so many wonders spread out in space, it's daunting to think how much is happening when no one is looking. That's why astronomers were thrilled when a satellite happened to be looking in just the right direction as a rare explosion in space occurred.
The giant eruption lit up a whole galaxy, known as M82, 12 million light-years away from Earth. Thinking two colliding neutron stars caused the explosion, astronomers searched for an afterglow, but there wasn't one. They realised this intense gamma-ray burst must have come from a single, mega-powerful neutron star. Neutron stars are the remains of massive stars, eight times larger than our Sun, after they explode in a supernova. Instead of turning into a black hole, the remains form compact spheres with strong magnetic fields.
But the observed neutron star's magnetic fields were super-strong, making it a magnetar, an extremely magnetic neutron star. With magnetic fields over 10,000 times stronger than average neutron stars, magnetars have the strongest magnetic fields measured in the Universe and emit energy through giant flares. It was one of these flares that ESA's satellite INTEGRAL happened to capture last November. The burst only lasted one-tenth of a second, but within 13 seconds a gamma-ray burst alert was sent to a...
The giant eruption lit up a whole galaxy, known as M82, 12 million light-years away from Earth. Thinking two colliding neutron stars caused the explosion, astronomers searched for an afterglow, but there wasn't one. They realised this intense gamma-ray burst must have come from a single, mega-powerful neutron star. Neutron stars are the remains of massive stars, eight times larger than our Sun, after they explode in a supernova. Instead of turning into a black hole, the remains form compact spheres with strong magnetic fields.
But the observed neutron star's magnetic fields were super-strong, making it a magnetar, an extremely magnetic neutron star. With magnetic fields over 10,000 times stronger than average neutron stars, magnetars have the strongest magnetic fields measured in the Universe and emit energy through giant flares. It was one of these flares that ESA's satellite INTEGRAL happened to capture last November. The burst only lasted one-tenth of a second, but within 13 seconds a gamma-ray burst alert was sent to a...
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BBC Science Focus (Digital) - 1 Issue, June 2024