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• An international group of researchers has succeeded in measuring for the first time the characteristics of a flare on a distant magnetar.

Magnetar

• A magnetar is a type of neutron star that has an extremely powerful magnetic field.
• Neutron stars are formed when the core of a massive star undergoes gravitational collapse when it reaches the end of its life.
• This results in the matter being so tightly packed that even a sugar-cube sized amount of material taken from such a star weighs more than 1 billion tons.
• Magnetars are a subclass of these neutrons and occasionally release flares with more energy in a fraction of a second than the Sun is capable of emitting in tens of thousands of years.
• Like other neutron stars, magnetars are around 20 kilometres in diameter and are formed by the collapse of a star

with a mass 10–25 times that of the Sun and have a mass about 1.4 solar masses.

• The density of the interior of a magnetar is extremely high (tablespoon of its substance would have a mass of over 100 million tons)
• Magnetars are differentiated from other neutron stars by having even stronger magnetic fields, and by rotating more slowly in comparison. The active life of a magnetar is shor
• Magnetars are relatively rare objects, with only about thirty having been spotted within the Milky Way so far.

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