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Meet SGR 1830-0645,
a newfound magnetar 13,000 light-years away
that’s done something never seen before.
It’s a neutron star –
the crushed core of an exploded sun –
with a superstrong magnetic field.
In October 2020, it suddenly became much brighter in X-rays.
NASA’s NICER telescope
on the International Space Station monitored the outburst
for more than a month.
The X-ray emission showed a triple-peak pattern
repeating every 10.4 seconds as the magnetar spun around.
The peaks came as
three surface hot spots rotated into our view.
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NICER tracked these spots
as they drifted across the star and changed size.
Two of them even merged – a behavior not seen before.
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Scientists think the spots arose when sudden changes
in the magnetar’s crust disturbed the magnetic field.
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This released energy
that produced the spots, as well as dozens of powerful X-ray bursts.
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NICER’s near-daily observations
of the SGR 1830 outburst made this finding possible.
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NASA