An unexpected effect sighted in supernova wreckage may be caused by a highly magnetized neutron star, or magnetar, and quantum activity never seen before.
Like all neutron stars, magnetars form when massive stars end their lives in a collapse that also triggers a massive supernova explosion. The matter that composes neutron stars is so dense that a sugar cube of it would weigh over a billion tons on Earth. The magnetic fields around these star remnants are the most powerful in the known universe, often 100 trillion times stronger than that of our planet.
