{"id":470646,"date":"2026-03-12T01:53:08","date_gmt":"2026-03-12T01:53:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/470646\/"},"modified":"2026-03-12T01:53:08","modified_gmt":"2026-03-12T01:53:08","slug":"astronomers-witness-magnetar-birth-for-first-time","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/470646\/","title":{"rendered":"Astronomers witness magnetar birth for first time"},"content":{"rendered":"

Astronomers have for the first time witnessed the birth of one of the universe\u2019s most extreme objects: a magnetar packing the mass of about 500,000 Earths into a sphere barely 12 miles across.<\/p>\n

The discovery has provided the clearest evidence yet that these bizarre objects power some of the brightest explosions in the universe, while also showing how they literally twist the fabric of space-time, in accordance with Einstein\u2019s general theory of relativity.<\/p>\n

When a large star reaches the end of its life, its core collapses under its own gravity. The outer layers explode outward in a supernova while the centre is crushed into an ultra-dense remnant, where a single teaspoon of material would weigh many billions of tons. Occasionally, that remnant is born spinning extraordinarily fast and threaded with a magnetic field trillions of times stronger than Earth\u2019s. Astronomers call such an object a magnetar.<\/p>\n

The study published in Nature observed for more than 200 days a superluminous supernova called SN 2024afav, a stellar blast discovered in December 2024 about a billion light-years away that shines at least ten times brighter than an ordinary supernova.<\/p>\n

Normally, the light from a supernova fades smoothly after reaching peak brightness. But after its peak, the light from SN 2024afav flickered as it faded, producing a series of small brightening pulses. Researchers believe this was due to some debris not escaping into space but forming a swirling disc of gas after falling back into the magnetar.<\/p>\n

The strange oscillations in radiation showed that the debris\u2019 axis of rotation was tilted. According to Einstein\u2019s theory of relativity, this would be due to a massive spinning object dragging the fabric of space-time around with it.<\/p>\n

\"Ferdinand<\/p>\n

Albert Einstein, second from left, with fellow physicists Walther Mayer and Edwin Hubble at Mount Wilson Observatory<\/p>\n

REUTERS<\/p>\n

It backed the idea that a magnetar is spinning within the expanding debris of the explosion and pouring in energy.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is definitive evidence for a magnetar forming as the result of a superluminous supernova core collapse,\u201d said Alex Filippenko, a professor of astronomy at the University of California, Berkeley and co-author of the study.<\/p>\n

Filippenko said: \u201cTo see a clear effect of Einstein\u2019s general theory of relativity is always exciting, but seeing it for the first time in a supernova is especially rewarding.\u201d<\/p>\n

The team say discoveries like this may soon become more common as new telescopes begin surveying the sky in finer detail.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is the most exciting thing I have ever had the privilege to be a part of. This is the science I dreamed of as a kid,\u201d said Joseph Farah of UC Santa Barbara. \u201cIt\u2019s the universe telling us out loud and in our face that we don\u2019t fully understand it yet, and challenging us to explain it.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Astronomers have for the first time witnessed the birth of one of the universe\u2019s most extreme objects: a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":470647,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[90,416,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-470646","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-space","8":"tag-science","9":"tag-space","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom","12":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/470646","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=470646"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/470646\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/470647"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=470646"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=470646"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=470646"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}