ESO PR Photo 31/08 -- The Hibernating Stellar MagnetThis looked interesting, don't know if it's been posted, guess we'll find out after full restoration...
Posted on 09/25/2008 5:30:05 PM PDT by SunkenCiv
This weird object initially misled its discoverers as it showed up as a gamma-ray burst, suggesting the death of a star in the distant Universe. But soon afterwards, it exhibited some unique behaviour that indicates its origin is much closer to us. After the initial gamma-ray pulse, there was a three-day period of activity during which 40 visible-light flares were observed, followed by a brief near-infrared flaring episode 11 days later, which was recorded by ESO's Very Large Telescope. Then the source became dormant again... The most likely candidate for this mystery object is a 'magnetar' located in our own Milky Way galaxy, about 15 000 light-years away towards the constellation of Vulpecula, the Fox. Magnetars are young neutron stars with an ultra-strong magnetic field a billion billion times stronger than that of the Earth.
(Excerpt) Read more at eso.org ...
ESO PR Photo 31/08 -- The Hibernating Stellar MagnetThis looked interesting, don't know if it's been posted, guess we'll find out after full restoration...
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Don’t work near that sucker with a screwdriver. (tip of the day)
I thought it was real, but its an artist rendering. Makes a nice desktop wallpaper.
There are larger versions on the site which could be adapted for just such a purpose:
http://www.eso.org/public/outreach/press-rel/pr-2008/images/phot-31a-08-preview.jpg
http://www.eso.org/public/outreach/press-rel/pr-2008/images/phot-31a-08-normal.jpg
http://www.eso.org/public/outreach/press-rel/pr-2008/images/phot-31a-08-fullres.jpg
http://www.eso.org/public/outreach/press-rel/pr-2008/images/phot-31a-08-fullres.tif
A comment like that could really mess up the *thread*. /rimshot!
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