Have you ever heard of magnetars? The magnetars are one of the most curious and mysterious objects in the known universe. These objects are incredibly small, considering the immensity of the universe and they have a surprising density besides, as we will have guessed by their names, a great magnetic force that makes them the most powerful magnets of the universe.
Where do the Magnetars come from?
The stars, in their final phase, explode and become supernovas . As they collapse in themselves, they eclipse everything around them until they slowly vanish. If the star at its origin was quite large, it will leave a neutron star at die , or what is the same, an extremely dense star, with the size of a small city but with a matter whose weight exceeds one billion tons. Besides all that density, that star It rotates very fast, hundreds of times per second, which causes an incredibly powerful magnetic field , we calculate that approximately one trillion times more powerful than that of the Earth itself.
Scientists have not yet agreed why, but the truth is that these neutron stars are especially magnetic, since their magnetic fields measure the barbarity of 1,000 billion times that of Earth. These figures are so astronomically immense that it's hard to understand them, is not it?
Since the year 1979, scientists are looking for magnetars after a gamma-ray discharge (identified later as caused by magnetar SGR 0525-66) caused space equipment interruptions and anomalies in the atmosphere . Since then, around 25 neutron stars, of the almost 2,000 in the galaxy, have been considered magnetar, although there are many others that are pending such consideration or even magnetars that are no longer active.
What cause the Magnetars?
From our point of view, that of the inhabitants of the Earth, it is good that there are not many of these stars. In 2004 there was a tremendous explosion or "earthquake" of the SGR 1806-20 , located 50,000 light-years away from the Earth, and yet it was powerful enough to affect our planet bluntly. The damages were the disabling of satellites and even the upper atmosphere of the planet was partially ionized.
For all those reasons you can understand why the magnetars have earned the title of the most powerful magnets that have been discovered, to this day, throughout the world. universe .
Actually, to understand how powerful a magnetar is, we will tell you that the fact of approaching only 1000 kilometers from us, it would destroy our nervous system or change our molecular structure . Just a little bit closer and its powerful gravitational force would literally tear us apart, starting with our atoms.
In short, the magnetars are continually sending out bursts of extraordinarily powerful energy, something they can not do constantly, in fact, the magnetars do not conserve that amazing power in a constant way. It must be due to that enormous release of energy during these outbursts, which the life span of magnetars as such is relatively short . We say relatively short because in terms of the universe, 10 thousand years is almost a sigh although to us it seems like an eternity. For it is 10 thousand years that it takes the magnetars to decay and cease to be an impressive and super powerful magnet in the universe.
Studies conducted determine that, approximately, in the Milky Way there must be around 30 million inactive magnetars . So we could say that the magnetrae have a short but violent life in order to have the strongest magnetic fields in the Universe.
The good news is that the closest of these giant magnets is thousands of light-years away from us, so for the time being scientists will have to settle for studying these curious magnetars from a distance. We, for our part, keep asking ourselves what other mysteries the universe hides. Will the human race ever reach to solve the great enigmas that have been posed to us throughout our history? What power will man have to influence the course of the universe?
The team of Supercurioso, all possessing insatiable curious minds, we ask ourselves these and many other questions about the role of man in this whole scenario. What do you think? Do these incredible mysteries of the universe call attention to you? Are you one of those who spend hours imagining how and why human beings are part of this complex universe? Leave us your observations on this matter and let us try to formulate some answer for these questions, do you dare? We will be happy to read you!