Astronomers believe they have found a rare, massive flare that erupted from an extremely magnetic dead star, or magnetar, that was bright enough to illuminate an entire galaxy. If true, the discovery would represent the first time gamma rays from a "recently deceased" neutron star erupting outside the Milky Way have been seen.
The flare was first spotted by the Integral Science Data Centre in Geneva in the form of a short blast of high-energy gamma rays lasting just a tenth of a second. Integral sent an alert to astronomers who, just 13 seconds after the flare, realized these gamma rays seemed to be coming from the bright galaxy Messier 82 (M82), nicknamed the "Cigar Galaxy" due to its elongated shape; the Cigar Galaxy is located around 12 million light-years from Earth.
