You may have heard of white dwarfs, black holes, or pulsars, but there's another mysterious existence in the universe – magnetars.
Magnetars are those neutron stars that possess extremely strong magnetic fields. Their fall emits large amounts of high-energy electromagnetic radiation, including X-rays and gamma rays. Imagine compressing the mass of the Sun into a space the size of Manhattan Island, and that's just the beginning of magnetars. The magnetic field strength of tiny magnetars can even reach 100 trillion times that of the Earth's magnetic field!
The birth of magnetars is still a mystery, but scientists have some guesses. When a supernova erupts, a star collapses into a neutron star, and its magnetic field strength increases dramatically. However, this collapse is not smooth, and the loss of mass can even reach more than 10% of the original mass. In order to avoid collapsing directly into black holes, these massive stars must lose more mass. It is estimated that about 1 in 10 supernovae** produce magnetars.
On the solid crust of a magnetar, tension-induced "starquakes" may occur, similar to those on Earth. In July 2003, astronomers used NASA's X-ray timing detector to discover a magnetar for the first time, which is 100 times brighter than usual. Subsequently, they studied it using the European Photon Imaging Camera and observed changes in the brightness of magnetars. Scientists plan to use more data from X-ray observatories to delve deeper into more magnetars, which may solve the mystery behind magnetars.