Music Meet SGR 1830-0645, a newfound magnetar 13,000 light-years away that’s done something never seen before. It’s a neutron star – the crushed core of an exploded sun – with a superstrong magnetic field. In October 2020, it suddenly became much brighter in X-rays. NASA’s NICER telescope on the International Space Station monitored the outburst for more than a month. The X-ray emission showed a triple-peak pattern repeating every 10.4 seconds as the magnetar spun around. The peaks came as three surface hot spots rotated into our view. music NICER tracked these spots as they drifted across the star and changed size. Two of them even merged – a behavior not seen before. music music Scientists think the spots arose when sudden changes in the magnetar’s crust disturbed the magnetic field. music This released energy that produced the spots, as well as dozens of powerful X-ray bursts. music music NICER’s near-daily observations of the SGR 1830 outburst made this finding possible. music music fades silence