Astronomers see the fastest rotating magnetar ever seen

Far in the Milky Way galaxy, 21,000 light-years from Earth, astronomers have seen the fastest rotating magnetar (and possibly the youngest) ever seen. And that’s just the beginning of what makes this star weird.

Magnetars is a unique kind neutron star, which is the collapsed core of supergiant stars that died in supernova events. What distinguishes magnetars from other neutron stars is that they possess extremely powerful magnetic fields – the strongest in the known universe. They can also explode without warning and are quite difficult to spot. In fact, before this object was discovered, there were only 30 known magnetars, compared to the thousands (about 3000) known neutron stars.

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