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LiveScience
LiveScience
Harry Baker

Scientists witness birth of one of the universe's strongest magnets for the first time, thanks to a general relativity 'magic trick'

An illustration of a magnetar with a wobbling accretion disk.

For the first time, astronomers have witnessed the birth of one of the universe's most powerful magnets, or magnetars, at the heart of an unusually bright supernova, thanks to an effect first predicted by Albert Einstein.

According to the researchers, this exciting discovery is the first time general relativity has been needed to describe the mechanics of an exploding star.

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