magnetar tagged posts

1. Astrophysicist Ken Chen ran 2D simulations with Berkeley Lab’s CASTRO code on NERSC’s Edison supercomputer to better understand the physical conditions that create superluminious supernova.
Credit: Ken Chen, National Astronomical Observatory of Japan 2. Superluminous Supernova simulation in 2D generated with Berkeley Lab developed CASTRO code. (Credit: Ken Chen, National Astronomical Observatory of Japan)

Sightings of a rare breed of superluminous supernovae – stellar explosions that shine 10 to 100 times brighter than normal – are perplexing astronomers. First spotted only in last decade, scientists are confounded by the extraordinary brightness of these events and their explosion mechanisms...

This composite image shows RCW 103 and its central source, known officially as 1E 161348-5055 (1E 1613, for short), in three bands of X-ray light detected by Chandra. In this image, the lowest energy X-rays from Chandra are red, the medium band is green, and the highest energy X-rays are blue. The bright blue X-ray source in the middle of RCW 103 is 1E 1613. The X-ray data have been combined with an optical image from the Digitized Sky Survey.

Using NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory and other X-ray observatories, astronomers have found evidence for what is likely one of the most extreme pulsars, or rotating neutron stars, ever detected...

This artist’s rendering shows a magnetar outburst. A 2011 outburst of Swift J1834.9-0846 led to its discovery by NASA’s Swift satellite. Credit: NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center

Astronomers have discovered a vast cloud of high-energy particles called a wind nebula around a rare ultra-magnetic neutron star, or magnetar, for the first time. The find offers a unique window into the properties, environment and outburst history of magnetars, which are the strongest magnets in the universe.

A neutron star is the crushed core of a massive star that ran out of fuel, collapsed under its own weight, and exploded as a supernova. Each one compresses the equivalent mass of half a million Earths into a ball just 12 miles across, or about the length of New York’s Manhattan Island...

Artist impression of a magnetar boosting a super-luminous supernova and gamma-ray burst. Credit: Kavli IPMU

Calculations by scientists have found highly magnetized, rapidly spinning neutron stars called magnetars could explain the energy source behind 2 extremely unusual stellar explosions. Stellar explosions known as supernovae usually shine a billion times brighter than the Sun. Super-luminous supernovae (SLSNe) are a relatively new and rare class of stellar explosions, 10 – 100 times brighter than normal supernovae. But the energy source of their super-luminosity, and explosion mechanisms are a mystery and remain controversial amongst scientists.

A group of researchers tested a model that suggests that the energy to power the luminosity of two recently discovered SLSNe, SN 2011kl and AS...