NASA's NICER telescope sees hot spots merge on a magnetar

For the first time, NASA's Neutron star Interior Composition Explorer (NICER) has observed the merging of multimillion-degree X-ray spots on the surface of a magnetar, a supermagnetized stellar core no larger than a city.

Japanese astronomers investigate magnetar XTE J1810-197

Using four radio telescopes, astronomers from the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan and elsewhere have conducted multi-frequency multi-epoch radio observations of a radio-loud magnetar known as XTE J1810-197. Results ...

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Magnetar

A magnetar is a type of neutron star with an extremely powerful magnetic field, the decay of which powers the emission of copious amounts of high-energy electromagnetic radiation, particularly X-rays and gamma rays. The theory regarding these objects was proposed by Robert Duncan and Christopher Thompson in 1992, but the first recorded burst of gamma rays thought to have been from a magnetar was detected on March 5, 1979. During the following decade, the magnetar hypothesis has become widely accepted as a likely explanation for soft gamma repeaters (SGRs) and anomalous X-ray pulsars (AXPs).

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