A Massive Cosmic Explosion Just Revealed the Birth of a Magnetar.mp4

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"We know that magnetars exist because we see them in our galaxy. We think most of them are formed in the explosive deaths of massive stars, leaving these highly magnetized neutron stars behind. However, it is possible that a small fraction form in neutron star mergers. We have never seen evidence of that before, let alone in infrared light, making this discovery special," said Northwestern University astrophysicist Wen-fai Fong, who led the research.

Transcript

00:00Long ago, in a galaxy far, far away, a massive gamma-ray burst released more energy in a half

00:09second than our Sun will ever produce. In May of 2020, light from that stellar explosion finally

00:14reached Earth. Now, an astrophysics team from Northwestern University believes we have witnessed

00:19the birth of a magnetar for the very first time. Magnetars are the most magnetic objects in the

00:24universe, according to NASA. These magnetic monsters have been observed but are poorly

00:28understood, and astronomers have never seen one being born. Scientists believe the magnetar was

00:33created in a neutron star collision. The event, called GRB200522A, produced a characteristic

00:39afterglow known as a kilonova, the brightest ever seen. Astrophysicist Wenfai Fong, who led the

00:45research, told LiveScience, I can count on my hands the number of kilonovas that have been discovered

00:49from short gamma-ray bursts, but this was 10 times brighter than any of those. A rapidly spinning

00:55neutron star with massive magnetic fields, a.k.a. a magnetar, might explain such a bright

01:00kilonova. The magnetar's powerful magnetic fields would have stirred up the energized

01:03kilonova particles, making them glow bright. Assuming the team is correct, future observations

01:08should reveal radio emissions from the site. The findings were published in the Astrophysical

01:12Journal.

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