http://www.freerepublic.com/tag/magnetar/ en-us Sun, 24 Feb 2008 05:05:41 GMT Focus Forum 15 http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1975310/posts Enlarge ImageGrowing pains. This artist's conception shows a neutron star known as a magnetar crackling with extremely powerful magnetic activity.Credit: Gregg Dinderman/Sky & Telescope "When you hear hoofbeats," the old saying goes, "think horse, not zebra." But what if your horse suddenly grows zebra stripes? That's the predicament astronomers faced when a star they were observing--a rapidly spinning remnant of a supernova called a pulsar--started emitting powerful bursts of x-rays considered the hallmark of a much-rarer object called a magnetar. The finding strongly suggests that pulsars, also known as neutron stars, and magnetars are linked and paves the way... ScienceNOW Daily News http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1975310/posts#comment Sun, 24 Feb 2008 05:05:41 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1692955/posts A star in a galaxy about 440 million light-years away released in a few seconds more energy than the sun will over the course of its entire lifetime, according to observations made on February 18. A high-energy jet of x-rays shot out from the doomed star's core and was captured by the Burst Alert Telescope on NASA's Swift satellite. The satellite relayed the information to astronomers on the ground, and within days a wide array of telescopes turned to the exploding object. Meanwhile the other telescopes on Swift continued to observe the unusually long-lived burst; it lasted 40 minutes compared... Scientific American http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1692955/posts#comment Thu, 31 Aug 2006 07:01:15 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1661439/posts Embedded in the heart of a supernova remnant 10,000 light-years away is a stellar object the likes of which astronomers have never seen before in our galaxy. At first glance, the object looks like a densely packed stellar corpse known as a neutron star surrounded by a bubble of ejected stellar material, exactly what would be expected in the wake of a supernova explosion. However, a closer 24.5-hour examination with the European Space Agency's XMM Newton X-ray satellite reveals that the energetic X-ray emissions of the blue, point-like object cycles every 6.7 hours-tens of thousands of times longer than expected... Space.com on Yahoo http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1661439/posts#comment Thu, 6 Jul 2006 20:40:38 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1357528/posts Earthquakes and Tsunamis are triggered by Star-quakes – the invisible interconnection between different parts of the Universe The position of SGR1806-20 in a radio image of the sky - 50,000 light-years away Staff Reporter Mar. 7, 2005 Computer models are showing an interesting relationship between star-quakes and earthquakes. Supernova, star-quakes and similar burst of energy in the Universe triggers earthquakes and tsunamis. According to researchers, most of the large earthquakes and Tsunamis happened when there was a burst of energy somewhere in the cosmos. According to BBC, Astronomers say they have been stunned by the amount of energy released in... India Daily News http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1357528/posts#comment Mon, 7 Mar 2005 07:09:03 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1354654/posts WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A strange and powerful burst of radio waves from near the center of our galaxy may have come from a previously unknown type of space object, U.S. astronomers reported on Wednesday. Other experts nicknamed the mysterious source a "burper" and said there would be a race to scan for similar radio bursts. "We hit the jackpot," said Scott Hyman, a professor of physics at Sweet Briar College in Virginia, who led the study. "An image of the Galactic center, made by collecting radio waves of about 1 meter (3 feet) in wavelength, revealed multiple bursts from the... Reuters on Yahoo http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1354654/posts#comment Thu, 3 Mar 2005 01:21:21 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1346201/posts Scientists have detected a flash of light from across the Galaxy so powerful that it bounced off the Moon and lit up the Earth's upper atmosphere. The flash was brighter than anything ever detected from beyond our Solar System and lasted over a tenth of a second. NASA and European satellites and many radio telescopes detected the flash and its aftermath on December 27, 2004. Two science teams report about this event at a special press event today at NASA headquarters. The scientists said the light came from a "giant flare" on the surface of an exotic neutron star, called... NASA http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1346201/posts#comment Fri, 18 Feb 2005 20:19:03 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1346532/posts For a fraction of a second in December, a dying remnant of an exploded star let out a burst of light that outshone the Milky Way's other half-trillion stars combined, astronomers announced today. Even on Earth, half a galaxy away, the starburst was one of the brightest objects ever observed in the sky, after the Sun and perhaps a few comets. The magnitude of the event caught most astronomers by surprise. "Whoppingly bright," said Dr. Brian Gaensler, an astronomer at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics in Cambridge, Mass. "It gave off more energy in 0.2 seconds than the Sun does... NY Times http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1346532/posts#comment Sat, 19 Feb 2005 05:31:11 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1346418/posts A huge explosion halfway across the galaxy packed so much power it briefly altered Earth's upper atmosphere in December, astronomers said Friday.No known eruption beyond our solar system has ever appeared as bright upon arrival. But you could not have seen it, unless you can top the X-ray vision of Superman: In gamma rays, the event equaled the brightness of the full Moon's reflected visible light. The blast originated about 50,000 light-years away and was detected Dec. 27. A light-year is the distance light travels in a year, about 6 trillion miles (10 trillion kilometers). The commotion was caused by... Space.Com http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1346418/posts#comment Sat, 19 Feb 2005 02:11:56 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/1091973/posts Astronomy Picture of the Day Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer. 2004 March 6 N49's Cosmic Blast Credit: Hubble Heritage Team (STScI / AURA), Y. Chu (UIUC) et al., NASA Explanation: Scattered debris from a cosmic supernova explosion lights up the sky in this gorgeous composited image based on data from the Hubble Space Telescope. Cataloged as N49, these glowing filaments of shocked gas span about 30 light-years in our neighboring galaxy, the Large Magellanic Cloud. Light from the... NASA http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/1091973/posts#comment Sat, 6 Mar 2004 11:24:18 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/940363/posts Astronomy Picture of the Day Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer. 2003 July 4 N49's Cosmic Blast Credit: Hubble Heritage Team (STScI / AURA), Y. Chu (UIUC) et al., NASA Explanation: Scattered debris from a cosmic supernova explosion lights up the sky in this gorgeous composited image based on data from the Hubble Space Telescope. Cataloged as N49, these glowing filaments of shocked gas span about 30 light-years in our neighboring galaxy, the Large Magellanic Cloud. Light from the... NASA http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/940363/posts#comment Fri, 4 Jul 2003 07:38:49 GMT