Sun, Feb 20, 2005
Source Identified As Giant Flare On Surface Of Neutron
Star
Scientists have detected a flash of light from across the Galaxy
so powerful that it bounced off the Moon and lit up the Earth's
upper atmosphere. The flash was brighter than anything ever
detected from beyond our Solar System and lasted over a tenth of a
second. NASA and European satellites and many radio telescopes
detected the flash and its aftermath on December 27, 2004. Two
science teams report about this event at a special press event
today at NASA headquarters. A multitude of papers are planned for
publication.
The scientists said the light came from a "giant flare" on the
surface of an exotic neutron star, called a magnetar. The apparent
magnitude was brighter than a full moon and all historical star
explosions. The light was brightest in the gamma-ray energy range,
far more energetic than visible light or X-rays and invisible to
our eyes.
Such a close and powerful eruption raises the question of
whether an even larger influx of gamma rays, disturbing the
atmosphere, was responsible for one of the mass extinctions known
to have occurred on Earth hundreds of millions of years ago. Also,
if giant flares can be this powerful, then some gamma-ray bursts
(thought to be very distant black-hole-forming star explosions)
could actually be from neutron star eruptions in nearby
galaxies.
NASA's newly launched Swift satellite and the NSF-funded Very
Large Array (VLA) were two of many observatories that observed the
event, arising from neutron star SGR 1806-20, about 50,000 light
years from Earth in the constellation Sagittarius.
"This might be a once-in-a-lifetime event for astronomers, as
well as for the neutron star," said Dr. David Palmer of Los Alamos
National Laboratory, lead author on a paper describing the Swift
observation. "We know of only two other giant flares in the past 35
years, and this December event was one hundred times more
powerful."
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