Satellites Track Object With Magnetic Field 100 Trillion Xs Stronger Than Earth's
On Aug. 22, 2008, NASA's Swift satellite reported multiple blasts of radiation from a rare object known as a soft gamma repeater, or SGR, some 15,000 light years away. This ancient stellar remnant -one of the totally weird stars of this awesome ongoing hit movie we call the cosmos- is one the most magnetized objects in the universe. Only 15 are known to exist.
Astronomers think the eruptions of SGRs arise from the most highly magnetized objects in the universe -- magnetars, or neutron stars -- the crushed cores of exploded stars -- that, for reasons not yet known, possess ultra-strong magnetic fields. With fields 100 trillion times stronger than Earth’s, a magnetar placed half the moon’s distance would wipe the magnetic strips of every credit card on the planet.
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