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Australia Telescope Compact Array
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Magnetic mystery solved
Magnetars - stars with magnetic fields a thousand million million times
stronger than Earth's - are formed when some of the biggest stars in the
cosmos explode, says a team led by Australian ex-pat Bryan Gaensler of
the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics.
The astronomers base their conclusions on a study made with CSIRO's
Australia Telescope Compact Array and Parkes radio telescope in eastern
Australia.
The above image shows a magnetar - the blue spot near the centre of the
image, and a gigantic bubble of hydrogen gas blown by the star that
went on to explode and form a magnetar.
See the
press
release for more information.
Original: Bob Sault (7-Feb-2005)
Modified: Bob Sault (7-Feb-2005)