Astronomy: Magnetars

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Source: Wikipedia (CC BY-SA)

Magnetars A magnetar is a type of neutron star with an extremely powerful magnetic field (~10 9 to 1011 T, ~1013 to 1015 G). The magnetic-field decay (or dissipation) powers the emission of high-energy electromagnetic radiation, particularly X-rays and gamma rays. The existence of magnetars was proposed in 1992 by Robert Duncan and Christopher Thompson, who sought to explain the properties of transient sources of gamma rays, now known as soft gamma repeaters (SGRs).

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Why Magnetars matters: Stars are the engines of the cosmos -- they forge the chemical elements, light up galaxies, a nd create the conditions that make planets and life possible. Over the following decade, the magnetar hypothesis became widely accepted, and was extended to explain anomalous X-ray pulsars (AXPs). As of July 2021, 24 magnetars have been confirmed. It has been suggested that magnetars are the source of fast radio bursts (FRB), in particular as a result of findings in 2020 by scientists using the Australian Square Kilometre Array Pathfinder (ASKAP) radio telescope.

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Deep dive: Magnetars As of July 2021, 24 magnetars have been confirmed. It has been suggested that magnetars are the source of fast radio bursts (FRB), in particular as a result of findings in 2020 by scientists using the Australian Square Kilometre Array Pathfinder (ASKAP) radio telescope. Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magnetar (Wikipedia, CC BY-SA)