Artist’s impression of HD 45166, the star that might become a magnetar

This artist impression shows HD 45166, a massive star recently discovered to have a powerful magnetic field of 43 000 gauss, the strongest magnetic field ever found in a massive star. Intense winds of particles blowing away from the star are trapped by this magnetic field, enshrouding the star in a gaseous shell as illustrated here.

Astronomers believe that this star will end its life as a magnetar, a compact and highly magnetic stellar corpse. As HD 45166 collapses under its own gravity, its magnetic field will strengthen, and the star will eventually become a very compact core with a magnetic field of around 100 trillion gauss — the most powerful type of magnet in the Universe.

HD 45166 is part of a binary system. In the background, we get a glimpse of HD 45166’s companion, a normal blue star that has been found to orbit at a far larger distance than previously reported.