[Willie Green]

Yeah, I never heard of a "magnetar" before...
I wonder how that term has managed to escape the notice of all the sci-fi writers for Star Trek, etc.???

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

1 entry found for magnetar.

Main Entry:	magnetar
Part of Speech:	noun
Definition:	a young neutron star, perh. formed in supernova explosions and having an immense magnetic field; also called soft gamma repeater
Example:	Discovery of a magnetar solves 19 year mystery in astrophysics.
Etymology:	magne(tic) + (s)tar

Source: Webster's New Millennium™ Dictionary of English, Preview Edition (v 0.9.5)
Copyright © 2003, 2004 Lexico Publishing Group, LLC

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[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

Great source here:

`MAGNETARS', SOFT GAMMA REPEATERS
& VERY STRONG MAGNETIC FIELDS

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Robert C. Duncan, University of Texas at Austin duncan@astro.as.utexas.edu

Abstract

Soft gamma repeaters ("SGRs") are X-ray stars that emit bright, repeating flashes of soft (i.e. low-energy) gamma rays. The physical nature of these stars was a mystery for many years. In 1992, it was proposed that SGRs are magnetically-powered neutron stars, or magnetars. Subsequent observational studies lent support to this hypothesis. Astronomers now think that all emissions detected from SGRs and from a related class of stars known as anomalous X-ray pulsars ("AXPs") are powered by magnetic field decay. Here I will explain how these strange, physically-extreme stars form, and why they emit steadily pulsating X-rays with sporadic, bright outbursts. I will also tell the story of their discovery and of the theoretical efforts which helped to reveal their bizarre nature.

NOTE: this website was originally written in May 1998, in response to a surge of interest in magnetars. In early 2003 I updated the site, to answer questions raised by readers of a Scientific American cover story on magnetars. I made significant revisions throughout, and added new sections. However, I did not come close to covering all the recent progress in this rapidly-developing area of astrophysics. I am currently writing a book that will tell much more about magnetars, and explain everything more carefully and thoroughly.

- R.D., March 2003