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Canadian Astronomers Discover a Magnetar
trotski writes "The Globe and Mail is running an article about the discovery of a magnetar star by Canadian astronomers. The star, named SGR 1806-20, is located 40,000 light-years from earth. This neutron star is one of only four magnetars ever discovered. Magnetars are characterized by their huge magnetic fields, billions of times stronger than any magnets on Earth. Apparently, if this star was located as far away as the moon, it could demag floppy disks and suck change right out of your pocket."
Having a star as close as the moon would probably be pretty warm, too.
Cogito ergo sum in Slashdot.
Try going near an MRI machine with change in your pocket. I made that mistake once, and it was tugging hard at the coins from across the room. >1 tesla magnetic fields need to be treated with respect - people can get seriously hurt if anything metallic gets brought into the room - they can get ripped out of your hand or pocket and will fly straight down the central bore where the patient is. I've heard stories of people being killed when someone walked into an MRI room with a pair of scissors in their pocket.
if this star was located as far away as the moon, it could demag floppy disks
Yet another reason I'm glad I stayed with paper tape.
-- MarkusQ
See my previous comment. A strong enough magnetic field really doesn't care what metal something is made of.
Maybe the star is Democratic, not magnetic. A Demostar. Then it could suck the change out of your pocket.
My God, it's Full of Source!
OUTSIDE_IP=$(dig +short my.ip @outsideip.net)
Please tell me I'm not the only one here who thinks this sounds like a villain out of an 80's cartoon. Maybe Space Ghost, or Transformers.
Good judgment comes from experience.
Experience comes from bad judgment.
And that makes me the perfect candidate to post here. Seriously though, one would think that a neutron star's magnetic field would extend well past the distance from the moon to the Earth.
"Extending" and "being able to suck change out of pockets and slow down locomotives" are two very different things.
Dipole magnetic fields drop off with the cube of distance, so on the surface of the neutron star (about 80,000 times closer), it would be strong enough to produce very exotic effects.
Apparently, if this star was located as far away as the moon, it could demag floppy disks and suck change right out of your pocket.
Yes, and if this star was located as far away from earth as the moon, we would also be dead.
A concert at the end of the Universe? Wouldn't Disaster Area be a more appropriate act?
It had been thought that SGRs are neutron stars with magnetic fields of ~1e14 Gauss (compared to the Crab's ~1e12 G or Earths ~1 G). This is a huge field that has enough energy (proportional to magnetic field squared) to power the huge blasts of radiation.
This new work by Samar Safi-Harb shows that the magnetic field is actually ~1e15 Gauss: 10x as strong and 100x the energy.
If there are any nearby planets with heavier elements and some range of chemistry, perhaps they could support life forms that derive their principal source of energy from such the magnetar's field.
Those life forms would have a leg up on us in terms of interfacing with electronic equipment more naturally than we do.
OTOH, maybe they'd miss out on all the visible spectrum features we make use of for our eyeballs.
"Provided by the management for your protection."
If there are any nearby planets with heavier elements and some range of chemistry, perhaps they could support life forms that derive their principal source of energy from such the magnetar's field.
This is an interesting thought. However, in this case, they (and the planet) would likely be boiled to vapour by the x- and gamma-ray bursts that let us know about the star's magnetic field in the first place.
Magnetic effects around gas giants, while far, far weaker, might still be strong enough to play a role in the evolution of any creatures on/in gas giant moons, though.
For a couple of interesting sci-fi books about life in and around neutron stars, check out "The Integral Trees"/"The Smoke Ring", by Larry Niven, and "Dragon's Egg", by Robert Forward.