Carl Knox / OzGrav
Artistic print of Magnetar Swift J1818.0–1607
It is a “ray of cosmic death” capable of destroying atoms a thousand kilometers away, and is crossing the Milky Way – but it does not properly concern the earthquakes.
According to one published last week Astronomy & Astrophysicsa wandering magnetar, called SGR 0501+4516is crossing our galaxy without a clear trail of its origin,
This object, initially discovered in 2008 by the NASA Swift Observatory, is one of the 30 known magnetres on the Milky Way, but its behavior challenges theories conventional about their formation.
Magnetares are a very rare and exotic type of neutrons starcharacterized by its incredibly intense magnetic field. They are star corpses Compounds almost entirely by neutrons, explains the.
What makes them unique is their Extreme magnetic fieldeven a billion of times more powerful than that of the earth. These magnetic fields are the strongest known in the universe.
If a magnetar passed between the earth and the moon, would erase the information of all credit cards on the planet, explains Ashley Chrimsresearcher at the European Space Agency (ESA) and the main author of the study.
Worse yet, If a person approached less than 1,000 kilometersabout Magnetar would destroy its atoms one by onebecoming a kind of cosmic “death of death”.
The mystery of its origin
Initially, astronomers believed that the SGR 0501+4516 had formed in a supernova, like most magnetres.
In fact, SGR 0501+4516 is close to a supernova remnant called HB9, the only 80 minutes of arc away in the sky (equivalent to the width of a little finger stretched at a distance of one arm).
However, a decade of observations with Hubble and data from ESA’s Gaia Mission revealed something unexpected: the magnetar does not come from this explosion stellar.
“All the movement we measure is smaller than a pixel in a hubble image,” he observes Joe Lymanastrophysicist at the University of Warwick, the United Kingdom, and co -author of the study. “Being able to do these measurements demonstrates the exceptional long -term stability of Hubble.”
When tracing their career, the team found that SGR 0501+4516 moves too fast and in an incompatible direction with the close supernova remnant. When they retreated their journey thousands of years in the past, they found no other remnant or cluster of massive stars that could explain their birth.
If the magnetar was not born in a supernova, So how did you graduate?
Investigators consider two possibilities: could be the result of collision of two stars of neutrons less massive, or we may be facing a scenario where a white dwarf absorbs material from a companion star until it collapses and becomes a magnetar.
“Normally, this process triggers a nuclear explosion and the white dwarf disappears. But under certain conditions, it could collapse directly on a neutrons star,” he explains Andrew Levanresearcher at the University of Radboud, in the Netherlands, and co -author of the study.
This magnetar could be the missing piece to explain one of the biggest puzzles of modern astronomy: the (FRBs), extremely intense but very brief (millisecond) radio pulses.
Some frbs come from regions with too old stars to have recent supernoves. If SGR 0501+4516 graduated without star explosion, its existence would support the theory that “orphans” magnetres would can generate these signs.
“Magnetares like this could be behind cosmic events extremes, such as gamma ray outbreaks, superluminous supernovae and frbs, ”says Nanda ReaResearcher at the Barcelona Institute of Space Sciences in Spain.
The team plans to use Hubble to study other magnetres on the Milky Way and determine if there are more cases like SGR 0501+4516. Each discovery brings astronomers closer to the solution of the puzzle how these monsters are born and What is your role In the most violent phenomena of the universe.
However, this wandering magnettar continues his journey through our galaxy, challenging everything we thought about the fate of the dead stars.
