Subscription Center
Feb 10, 2009 | 3
Space-borne NASA telescopes are picking up tremendous flares of x-rays and gamma rays from a rapidly spinning neutron star, a type of stellar remnant, 30,000 light-years away. The so-called magnetar, a hyper dense collapsed star—imagine the sun compressed to the width of Lake Tahoe—boasting a tremendous magnetic field, completes a rotation every 2.07 seconds, making it the fastest spinner of its kind. (According to McGill University's magnetar catalogue, only 13 have been confirmed.)
Dubbed SGR J1550-5418, the object lies in a small southern constellation called Norma. The designation SGR reflects the object's classification as a soft gamma repeater, an even rarer category of magnetar that fires off irregular bursts of x-rays and gamma rays. Late last month, the gamma-ray repeater earned its title by flaring up with intense bursts of radiation, the x-ray component of which was captured on video by NASA's Swift satellite (below).
See what we're tweeting about
sciencegoddess TB is increasing in its prevalence and virulence, making it an emerging infectious disease that cannot be... http://t.co/dut37Do8xA
DrBondar New bumper sticker!! http://t.co/s88gQFYNmV
FlyingTrilobite Potato bug. http://t.co/iyawHtfDhr
Deadline: Jul 15 2013
Reward: $5,000 USD
SciBX: Science-Business eXchange, a joint publication from the makers
Deadline: Jul 25 2013
Reward: Varies
This challenge provides an opportunity for Solvers to build a web-based or mobile “app” to explore data relationships in scholarly conte
Powered By: 
YES! Send me a free issue of Scientific American with no obligation to continue the subscription. If I like it, I will be billed for the one-year subscription.
