Astronomers have caught a highly magnetic dead star, or "magnetar," in the Milky Way briefly acting like a pulsar, a type of neutron star that rapidly rotates. The magnetar put on its pulsar disguise after emitting a powerful blast of radiation originally detected in 2020.
The emission is an example of a fast radio burst (FRB), a mysterious blast of energy whose sources and origins are still not well understood. Whereas the majority of FRBs have been traced to sources outside the Milky Way, this one, designated FRB 20200428, originated in our galaxy, making it the first "galactic FRB" ever seen. FRB 20200428 was linked to the highly magnetic neutron star, or "magnetar," SGR J1935+2154, located around 30,000 light-years away and orbiting the supermassive black hole at the heart of the Milky Way, Sagittarius A* (Sgr A*).
