Magnetars are nasty, but luckily uncommon. They are a special sort of neutron star that power up the greatest known magnetic fields.
When neutron stars are born in supernova explosions of a massive star, those charged particles can briefly create a strong magnetic field. In typical neutron stars, the magnetic field quickly melts away from all the complex physics happening in the explosion. For some neutron stars, the magnetic field locks itself in prior to that occurs.
A group of astronomers using the Chinese Insight-HXMT x-ray telescope have actually made a direct measurement of the strongest electromagnetic field in the known universe. The electromagnetic field comes from a magnetar currently in the procedure of cannibalizing an orbiting buddy.
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When neutron stars are born in supernova explosions of a huge star, those charged particles can quickly create a strong magnetic field. In normal neutron stars, the magnetic field rapidly melts away from all the complex physics taking place in the surge. For some neutron stars, the magnetic field locks itself in prior to that happens. Those electrons can just get that kind of energy if theyre powered by a magnetic field, and so through that observation the astronomers were able to straight determine the magnetic field strengths.
But the majority of the time astronomers need to make due with indirect measurements of magnetar magnetic field strengths. Fortunately, in some cases astronomers can get fortunate.
Recently a group of astronomers utilized the new Chinese Insight-HXMT observatory to study J0243.6 +6124, an ultraliminous pulsar in the Milky Way. This pulsar has an orbiting buddy that roamed too close. The pulsars severe gravity is presently in the process of tearing apart the companion, forcing its material into a thin accretion disk around the pulsar.
Sometimes the gas in the accretion disk flares, producing a flash of extremely bright x-rays. In the spectrum of those x-rays the astronomers discovered an absorption line brought on by electrons knocking away x-rays. Those electrons can just get that kind of energy if theyre powered by a magnetic field, therefore through that observation the astronomers had the ability to directly measure the magnetic field strengths.
They estimated a field strength of 1.6 billion tesla, which has to do with a million billion times stronger than the Earths electromagnetic field.
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