This weeks image shows an newly discovered magnetar (the small blob seen in the right-hand image near the bottom, indicated with an arrow) as seen in the X-ray, shown in blue, and radio, shown in red. Magnetars are a subclass of neutron stars, which are the remnant cores of a massive stars that ended their lives in supernova explosions. Magnetars have tremendous magnetic fields that can generate intense bursts of X-rays and gamma-rays. Click through to see whats so special about this one. Image Credit: COSPAR; Zhou et al. and ESA heasarc.gsfc.nasa.gov/docs/objects/heapow/archive/compact_objects/transient_magnetar_xmm.html
Posted on: Fri, 02 May 2014 13:07:06 +0000
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