Science Focus
original post »Credit: L. Calçada/ESO Space researchers in Japan working at the Suzaku observatory have found possible evidence of the existence of a toroidal magnetic field surrounding the magnetar 4U 0142+61. In their paper published in the journal Physical Review Letters, the research team describe their observation of inconsistent pulses coming from 4U 0142+61, suggesting the presence of an external magnetic field. Magnetars are a class of neutron star—both trace their origins to a supernova. What sets them apart is the strength of their magnetic fields—magnetars, as their name implies, are very strongly magnetic, with some measured at 1011 Tesla, approximately a billion times stronger than anything found on Earth. They are also extremely dense, of course, and somewhat small—generally no more than 20 kilometers in diameter. For some time, space scientists have theorized that magnetars also have a second doughnut-shaped (torus) magnetic field surrounding their equator, perhaps even stronger than the one measured at their surface. In this new effort, the researchers appear to have found evidence for just such a magnetic field surrounding 4U 0142+61. In studying the magnetar, the researchers were analyzing the strong x-ray emissions that come from its poles—pulsating every 8.7 seconds. Read more at: Phys.org
The post Researchers find possible evidence of toroidal magnetic field surrounding magnetar has been published on Technology Org.
#physics
» see original post http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/TechnologyOrgPhysicsNews/~3/T1GwLF0Wk6g/
See Zazzle gifts tagged with 'science'
No comments:
Post a Comment