Wednesday, August 18, 2010

Magnetic Mega-star Challenges Black Hole Theory

A neutron star with a mighty magnetic field has thrown down the gauntlet to theories about stellar evolution and the birth of black holes, astronomers reported on Wednesday. The "magnetar" lies in a cluster of stars known as Westerlund 1, located 16,000 light years away in the constellation of Ara, the Altar.

Within Westerlund 1 is the remains of one of galaxy's few magnetars -- a particular kind of neutron star, formed from the explosion of a supernova, that can exert a magnetic field a million, billion times strong than Earth's.

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