ESA - Space Science - X-ray satellites catch magnetar in gigantic stellar ‘hiccup’

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X-ray satellites catch magnetar in gigantic stellar ‘hiccup’

4 April 2007

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Magnetars are neutron stars with extremely powerful magnetic fields. They are extremely dense objects (the size of mountains but weighing as much as the sun), with magnetic fields hundreds of trillions of times more powerful than the Earth’s. The decay of these powerful magnetic fields powers the emission of very energetic radiation, usually in the form of X-rays or Gamma Rays

A seismic event accompanied by a powerful burst was observed on one such magnetar, Westerlund 1 in September 2005. Located in a star cluster about 15 000 light-years away in the Ara constellation in the southern hemisphere, the magnetar goes by the unwieldy official name CXOU J164710.2-455216.

Credits: NASA/Swift/Sonoma State University/A. Simonnet

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Located in a star cluster about 15 000 light-years away in the Ara constellation in the southern hemisphere, the magnetar goes by the unwieldy official name CXOU J164710.2-455216.

These images were taken by the European Photon Imaging Camera (EPIC), on board ESA’s XMM-Newton satellite, using 0.3-12.0 keV photons. The left panel shows the image of the field before the burst. The magnetar is brighter in the right panel, taken after the burst.

A seismic event was observed on this object on September 2005 while it was being heavily observed with several satellites, including ESA’s X-ray satellite, XMM-Newton, and NASA's Swift X-ray and gamma-ray observatory. The event caused the surface of the dense star to crack and shine brightly from multiple sources.

Credits: ESA/XMM-Newton/ California Institute of Technology, M.Muno

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Located in a star cluster about 15 000 light-years away in the Ara constellation in the southern hemisphere, the magnetar goes by the unwieldy official name CXOU J164710.2-455216.

A seismic event was observed on this object on September 2005 while it was being heavily observed with several satellites, including ESA’s X-ray satellite, XMM-Newton, and NASA's Swift X-ray and gamma-ray observatory. The event caused the surface of the dense star to crack and shine brightly from multiple sources. The light ‘pulses’ from the neutron star as detected by the camera are superimposed.

Credits: ESA/XMM-Newton/ California Institute of Technology, M.Muno/G.Israel

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