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a high energy outburst seen in april

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2020 confirmed the surprising range of

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super magnetized objects called

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magnetars

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this blast of x-rays and gamma rays

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triggered instruments on several

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spacecraft

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the eruption was over in the blink of an

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eye and originated from a galaxy about

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11 million light years away

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magnetars are part of the family of

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compact objects known as neutron stars

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the crushed leftover cores of exploded

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stars

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what makes magnetars special are their

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incredibly strong magnetic fields up to

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1 000 times stronger than a typical

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neutron stars

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sudden changes to this ultra strong

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field are thought to drive brief

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enormously powerful outbursts called

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giant flares

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one giant flare in our own galaxy

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affected earth's upper atmosphere from

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28 000 light years away

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on april 15th detectors on nasa's fermi

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swift mars odyssey and wind missions as

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well as on the european space agency's

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integral satellite picked up a rapid

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surge of x-rays and gamma rays

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using the arrival times of the signal at

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different spacecraft astronomers pinned

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the burst to ngc 253 a bright nearby

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galaxy

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from start to finish the event lasted

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just 140 milliseconds as fast as a

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finger snap

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astronomers see gamma-ray bursts or grbs

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almost every day

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we know that at least some of the

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shortest grbs come from merging neutron

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stars more than 100 million light years

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away

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the april blast initially looked similar

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to these events but a grb located in our

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own galactic neighborhood should have

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appeared much brighter

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as astronomers explored this new burst

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in detail they found it looked less like

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a short grb and more like a magnetar

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giant flare

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astronomers have recorded two such

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flares inside our own galaxy and a third

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in a satellite galaxy

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all of these bursts displayed a spiky

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tail as they fade it out the spikes form

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as the flare's hot spot spins in and out

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of view like a lighthouse beam

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current instruments can't detect this

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feature in flares located at great

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distances

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but other characteristics such as their

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extremely fast rise in brightness are

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unmatched by short grbs

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this fueled astronomers growing

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suspicions that short grbs associated

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with galaxies in our neighborhood might

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really be magnetar giant flares now the

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precise localization of the 2020 event

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to the disk of the sculptor galaxy has

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unmasked them at last

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astronomers suspect that a few percent

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of observed short grbs may in fact be

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giant flares

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high-powered eruptions in our galactic

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backyard