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Canadian Astronomers Discover a Magnetar

Posted by michael on from the stellar-attraction dept.

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."

7 of 79 comments (clear)

  1. Plus, by Bobulusman · · Score: 4, Funny

    Having a star as close as the moon would probably be pretty warm, too.

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    1. Re:Plus, by p4ul13 · · Score: 4, Funny
      Damn you for beating me to the punch on that comment.

      The article doesn't explain how they go about detecting such a star (bring a compass into space and see where it points??), but I found the last line amusing:

      "This neutron star could be as small as Winnipeg, but with a temperature several million times warmer," Prof. Safi-Harb said.

      A star that is much warmer than Winnipeg; Imagine that!

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    2. Re:Plus, by wyldeling · · Score: 5, Informative
      This one does. It was posted on flipcode yesterday.

      They explain it was detected by observing the effects the stars magnetic field has on charged particles. With a magnetic field of 10^15 gauss (vs 1-5 for the sun and the 10 - 50 for the Earth), it was mentioned that it won't just suck change out of your pocket, but rearrange the molecules in your body. Sounds like fun, doesn't it.

  2. Re:Magnetic Change by alyosha1 · · Score: 5, Informative

    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.

  3. Democratic Star by bill_mcgonigle · · Score: 4, Funny

    Maybe the star is Democratic, not magnetic. A Demostar. Then it could suck the change out of your pocket.

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  4. Magnetar... by Dannon · · Score: 5, Funny

    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.

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    Good judgment comes from experience.
    Experience comes from bad judgment.
  5. Reconstructing from media filter by Viadd · · Score: 5, Informative
    This is one of four well-known Soft Gamma Repeaters (SGRs). These are neutron stars in or near our galaxy that produce intense blasts of X-ray and soft gamma-ray radiation. Normal neutron stars (e.g. the Crab pulsar) just put out a fairly steady pulsing signal.

    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.