(The Hibernating Stellar Magnet)
http://www.spacedaily.com/reports/The_H ... t_999.html
(The Hibernating Stellar Magnet - First Optically Active Magnetar-Candidate Discovered)
http://www.eso.org/public/outreach/pres ... 31-08.html
(Associated multimedia; artist's impression, and animation of actual exposures {?})
http://www.eso.org/public/outreach/pres ... 31-08.html
(Paper: Flares from a candidate Galactic magnetar suggest a missing link to dim isolated neutron stars)
http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v4 ... 07328.html
The rest about "magnetars" is purely speculative...Astronomers have discovered a most bizarre celestial object that emitted 40 visible-light flashes before disappearing again. It is most likely to be a missing link in the family of neutron stars, the first case of an object with an amazingly powerful magnetic field that showed some brief, strong visible-light activity.
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.
So, they found a GRB which thye thought meant it was a dying star from "way out there." Then it started flashing in the visible spectrum and doing things suggesting that, rather than being "way out there," it's actually local to the Milky Way! Ya' can't have it both ways! Which is it?
Strangely enough, EU folks have argued for some time that GRBs aren't all "distant" and may be "local to the Milky Way." Hmm... How odd!
Regards,
~Michael Gmirkin