Get all your news in one place.
100's of premium titles.
One app.
Start reading
Space
Space
Science
Robert Lea

Recent star death leaves behind highly magnetic stellar corpse

A bright blue sphere with blue loops linking its poles.

Astronomers are investigating clues from a cosmic crime scene in which a massive star died and left behind an extremely magnetic "dead" star called a magnetar.

Magnetars are a type of neutron star, but with magnetic fields thousands of times stronger. Like another form of neutron star, a pulsar, magnetars spin incredibly rapidly. Scientists want to know what conditions cause the creation of a magnetar, and how these differ from the conditions that birth a pulsar — an "ordinary" neutron star. 

Sign up to read this article
Read news from 100's of titles, curated specifically for you.
Already a member? Sign in here
Related Stories
Top stories on inkl right now
One subscription that gives you access to news from hundreds of sites
Already a member? Sign in here
Our Picks
Fourteen days free
Download the app
One app. One membership.
100+ trusted global sources.