NASA Missions Team Up to Study Unique Magnetar Outburst

On April 28, space- and ground-based observatories detected powerful, simultaneous X-ray and radio bursts from a source in our galaxy. Watch to see how this unique event helps solve the longstanding puzzle of fast radio bursts observed in other galaxies.

Credit: NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center

Music: "Jupiter's Eye" from Universal Production Music

Watch this video on the NASA Goddard YouTube channel.

Complete transcript available.

Illustrated wide shot showing an X-ray burst ejecting a plume of material that travels high above the magnetar and emits a radio burst. Radio signals from pulsars, another class of neutron star, originate high above their surfaces – exactly where and how, we don’t know. Astronomers think the X-ray burst from SGR 1935 ejected a plume of matter that soared to similar heights, where it emitted the powerful radio burst.

Credit: NASAs Goddard Space Flight Center/Chris Smith (USRA)

Illustrated medium view of a magnetar during a burst storm. Late on April 27, NASA’s Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory spotted a new round of activity from magnetar SGR 1935+2154, located in the constellation Vulpecula. It was the object’s most prolific flare-up yet – a storm of rapid-fire X-ray bursts, each lasting less than a second. The storm raged for hours, picked up at various times by Swift, NASA’s Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope, and NASA’s Neutron star Interior Composition Explorer (NICER) X-ray telescope on the International Space Station.

Credit: NASAs Goddard Space Flight Center/Chris Smith (USRA)

A powerful X-ray burst erupts from magnetar SGR 1935+2154 in this illustration. The April 28 eruption, which lasted about half a second, likely drove off a plume of matter. Astronomers say that, while the X-ray burst flared, the ejected material emitted a radio burst lasting just a thousandth of a second, likely from a location high above the magnetar.

Credit: NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center/Chris Smith (USRA)

Illustrated magnetar flyby sequence showing magnetic field lines. A magnetar is a type of isolated neutron star, the crushed, city-size remains of a star many times more massive than our Sun. Their magnetic fields can be 10 trillion times stronger than a refrigerator magnet's and up to a thousand times stronger than a typical neutron star's. This represents an enormous storehouse of energy that astronomers suspect powers magnetar outbursts.

Credit: NASAs Goddard Space Flight Center/Chris Smith (USRA)

Illustrated magnetar flyby sequence during which magnetic field lines appear.

Credit: NASAs Goddard Space Flight Center/Chris Smith (USRA)

A powerful X-ray burst erupts from a magnetar – a supermagnetized version of a stellar remnant known as a neutron star – in this illustration. A radio burst detected April 28 occurred during a flare-up like this on a magnetar called SGR 1935. The radio signal was more powerful than any previously seen in our galaxy. The simultaneous X-ray and radio events implicate magnetars as a likely source of mysterious fast radio bursts observed from other galaxies.

Credit: NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center/Chris Smith (USRA)