Roaming Magnetar
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Produced by the Space Telescope Science Institute’s Office of Public Outreach in collaboration with NASA’s Universe of Learning partners: Caltech/IPAC, Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian, and NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory.
Video imagery:
· Artist’s concept of a magnetar: ESA
· Animation of a white dwarf: NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center Conceptual Image Lab
· Animation of a magnetar: NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center/Chris Smith (USRA/GESTAR)
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A collage of space photos including planets, stars, nebulae, and galaxies. Text, News from the Universe.
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April 25, 2025. Roaming Magnetar. An artist’s concept of a magnetic field surrounding a fiery blue ball in space. Astronomer’s think they have found a neutron star with extreme magnetic fields, called a magnetar, in our galaxy that formed by an unusual process. Most magnetars are thought to form in a supernova, when a massive star explodes and collapses down to an ultra-dense core with magnetic fields a trillion times stronger than Earth’s.
Astronomers paired detailed observations by NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope with a sky map from the Gaia mission to trace the subtle movement of magnetar SGR 0501 plus 4516. The magnetar’s trajectory shows that it is not associated with any nearby supernova remnant. Astronomers think this means the magnetar formed in another way.
It could have formed through the merger of two smaller neutron stars, or by a theorized process of a white dwarf star stealing mass from a companion star and collapsing to form a magnetar.
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Magnetars are thought to be related to many of the universe’s highest-energy events, like gamma-ray and fast radio bursts.
Uncovering magnetars’ origins would help us understand some of the most extreme events in the universe.
This news was brought to you in part by the Space Telescope Institute in Baltimore, Maryland.