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ESO 31/08 - Associated Images

24 September 2008
For Immediate Release

THE HIBERNATING STELLAR MAGNET

First Optically Active Magnetar-Candidate Discovered

Astronomers have discovered a possible magnetar that emitted 40 visible-light flashes before disappearing again. Magnetars are young neutron stars with an ultra-strong magnetic field a billion billion times stronger than that of the Earth. The twisting of magnetic field lines in magnetars give rise to 'starquakes', which will eventually lead to an intense soft gamma-ray burst. In the case of the SWIFT source, the optical flares that reached the Earth were probably due to ions ripped out from the surface of the magnetar and gyrating around the field lines. Credit: ESO/L.Calçada.

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The newly discovered object, known as SWIFT J195509+261406, showed intense flaring activity over a three day period. One of such flare is demonstrated here (and in the accompanying video). The images, obtained with the 0.8-m IAC80 telescope at Teide Observatory (Spain), show the source over a time span of about 30 minutes, during which the source brightens quickly then fades away. Forty of such flares have been recorded by the team of astronomers. Credit: A.J. Castro-Tirado/IAC80/ESO.