Magnetar wakes up 10 years later and is behaving very strangely

The unusual star (magnetar) XTE J1810-197 was discovered in 2003 when it was violently emitting radio waves. The year 2008 turned out to be a strange one, when the magnetar's activity suddenly stopped. for him The awakening occurred 10 years laterBut no one expected what would be recorded. Only after four years of research scientists reveal the unusual truth.

Magnetar It is an object with a very strong magnetic field – this object emits gamma radiation and X-rays regularly (pulses) or irregularly (flashes). Magnetars are formed during explosions of stars whose mass was tens of times greater than the mass of the Sun. However, the mechanism of magnetar formation itself is not very well understood, so this is one of many mechanisms the universe secrets.

It is known that they are collapsed cores of stars whose mass may reach 2.3 solar masses. The matter here is condensed into a sphere with a diameter of only 20 km. Young magnetars have magnetic fields trillions of times stronger than Earth's It is 1,000 times stronger than the magnetic field of an ordinary neutron star.

Scientists were very surprised by this after 10 years of sleep The magnetar XTE J1810-197 has woken up. Immediately after discovering the activity of this celestial body, detailed research began. Now the results of the analyzes have been published – the data obtained caused great embarrassment to specialists.

He found that a magnetar emits low-frequency electromagnetic emissions that are “twisted” in a way Which had not been noticed before. At the same time, the entire object seems to “sway.”

Normally, magnetars emit linearly polarized light, with a small amount of circularly polarized light (which moves in a spiral). Astronomers noticed that this topic The object emits enormous amounts of circularly polarized light.

In turn, Gregory Desvigny of the Max Planck Institute for Radio Astronomy (MPIfR) in Germany says: – We expected some… Changes in emission polarization This magnetar as we know it from other magnetars. But we did not expect these changes to be so systematic, and to closely mirror the behavior that might be caused by the star's oscillation.

Researchers suggest that the star's unusual condition is due to the fact that light must pass through it A very thick and heated “particle solution”., which is located in a very strong magnetic field. However, this does not explain all the mysteries discovered.

– Our results indicate that the matter is over The magnetic pole of a magnetar There is a very hot plasma that acts as a polarizing filter. Exactly how plasma does this is not yet known, Lauer says.

At the same time, scientists noted that the object's polarization revealed a change in its orientation relative to our planet – creating the impression that… The magnetar looked like a rotating top. However, surprisingly, the volatility decreased significantly over the following months and eventually stopped.

The explanation is also “strange”, as researchers believe it could be caused by… The surface of the star is cracked. Extremely hot particles were supposed to escape from space, moving at close to the speed of light.

– There may be a weakened forward motion of the magnetars Shedding light on the internal structure of neutron starsWhich is ultimately linked to our fundamental understanding of matter, says astrophysicist Lijing Shao of Peking University.

The research results were published in the scientific journal Nature Astronomy.