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Ghostly Ring Found Circling Dead Star

Posted by ScuttleMonkey on from the check-your-optics dept.

Roland Piquepaille writes "An international team of scientists has found a strange ring around a dead star by using images taken by NASA's Spitzer space telescope. This star, called SGR 1900+14, belongs to a class of objects known as magnetars. According to NASA, a magnetar is 'a highly magnetized neutron star and the remnant of a brilliant supernova explosion signaling the death throes of a massive star.' So far, about a dozen magnetars have been found. An amazing thing about these stellar objects is their magnetic field. One of the researchers said that 'magnetars possess magnetic fields a million billion times stronger than the magnetic field of the Earth.'

6 of 207 comments (clear)

  1. not a ring by datapharmer · · Score: 3, Interesting

    What ring? It just looks out of focus to me.

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  2. Re:I for one welcome . . . by pembo13 · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Who said it was a test?

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  3. Re:The ring by Inner_Child · · Score: 3, Interesting

    http://xkcd.com/396/

    I'm surprised no one mentioned this already.

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  4. Re:Pssst! by QuoteMstr · · Score: 3, Interesting

    I'm not a physicist, but I'm still fascinated by astronomical phenomena like this. Can anyone tell me what the effects of ultra-strong magnetic fields would be on a living creature? I know we can levitate frogs with powerful magnets, but nothing strange happens to the frog itself. Can we withstand a magnetic field of any strength?

  5. Re:Pssst! by ceoyoyo · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Interesting that we can generate a field strong enough to noticeably deform atomic orbitals.

  6. Sci fi chemistry like deep ocean "smokers" by Fallen+Andy · · Score: 3, Interesting

    In a field of about 105 teslas atomic orbitals deform into cigar shapes. At 1010 teslas, a hydrogen atom becomes a spindle 200 times narrower than its normal diameter.

    I think the most powerful field ever generated in a lab was less than 200 tesla.

    Which sort of implies that some *really* weird chemistry might be possible. Chemistry that simply wouldn't happen under more normal conditions. Cue the Sci Fi stories...

    Andy