Magnetar Star Erupted Releasing Energy Of A Billion Suns In 3.5 Milliseconds

Astronomers have found a magnetar star 13 million light-years away, violently erupting and ejecting energy similar to that of a billion suns within one tenth of a second.

University Of Valencia

Also Read: Secrets of Super-Dense Magnetic Star

The star was spotted nearly 13 million light-years away in the Sculptor group of galaxies. The discovery was made using the AIM instrument aboard the International Space Station to better understand the oscillations in the brightness of a magnetar dubbed GRB2001415.

The technique enabled the team to record the intensity and duration of the eruption of the magnetar.

According to researchers, even in an inactive state, magnetars can be a hundred thousand times shinier than our Sun and in this case, the flash they studied, was equivalent to the energy radiated by our Sun in 100,000 years.

They still don¡¯t exactly know what caused this eruption, but they suspect it could be due to instabilities in the star¡¯s magnetosphere or maybe an earthquake in its crust.

While researchers were analysing the eruption¡¯s oscillations, they saw the pulses produced were consistent with the emissions produced between Alfven waves. This indicates that the whole magnetic princess lasts just 3.5 milliseconds, according to the researchers.

NASA

Also Read: Scientists Detect 1,652 Radio Signals From Unknown Source In Space

Alberto J. Castro-Tirado, the lead researcher of the study, explains, ¡°The difficulty lies in the brevity of the signal, whose amplitude rapidly decays and becomes embedded in background noise. And, as it is a correlated noise, it is difficult to distinguish its signal.¡±

He added, ¡°Seen in perspective, it has been as if the magnetar wanted to indicate its existence to us from its cosmic solitude, singing in the kHz with the force of a Pavarotti of a billion suns.¡±

Keep reading Indiatimes.com for science and technology stories.