Magnetars are among the universe's most extreme objects - a class of the compact stellar remnants called neutron stars that possess immensely strong magnetic fields. Once in a while, they produce enormous eruptions of gamma rays in the strongest nondestructive release of energy known in the cosmos.
Scientists have now detected the most distant-known instance of one of these eruptions, called a giant flare, from a magnetar residing in a galaxy called Messier 82, or M82. This surge of gamma rays, the most energetic form of light, unleashed in just a tenth of a second the amount of energy our sun would emit in a span of roughly 10,000 years, they said.
Only two confirmed giant flares have been observed in our Milky Way galaxy, in 2004 and 1998, and only one previous one in another galaxy, in 1979 in the Milky Way's neighboring Large Magellanic Cloud, the researchers said.
