A magnetar is born

Scientists captured the birth of a magnetar for the first time

This is the result of a giant collision between two neutron stars.

by Passant Rabie
Updated: 
Originally Published: 
magnetar illustration
NASA, ESA, and D. Player (STScI).

NASA, ESA and M. Kornmesser

On May 22, the Hubble Space Telescope detected a gamma ray burst that produced more energy in a half-second than the Sun will produce over its entire 10-billion-year lifetime.

Goddard Space Flight Center, NASA

Gamma ray bursts are high-energy explosions, the brightest and most energetic of all electromagnetic events that take place across the cosmos.

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