For the first time, astronomers have definitively spotted a flaring magnetar in another galaxy.
These ultra-magnetic stellar corpses were thought to be responsible for some of the highest-energy explosions in the nearby universe. But until this burst, no one could prove it, astronomers reported January 13 at the virtual meeting of the American Astronomical Society and in papers in
Nature and
Nature Astronomy.
Astronomers have seen flaring magnetars in the Milky Way, but those are so bright that it’s impossible to get a good look at them. Possible glimpses of flaring magnetars in other galaxies may have been spotted before, too. But “the others were all a little circumstantial, and not as rock solid,” says astrophysicist Victoria Kaspi of the McGill Space Institute in Montreal, who was not involved in the new discovery. “Here you have something that is so incontrovertible, it’s like, okay, this is it. There’s no question anymore.”
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Magnetic “Highway” Channels out of Cigar Galaxy
January 14, 2021 GMT
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COLUMBIA, Md. and MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif., Jan. 14, 2021 /PRNewswire/ What’s fueling the massive ejection of gas and dust out of the Cigar galaxy, otherwise known at Messier 82?
We know that thousands of stars bursting into existence are driving a powerful super-wind that’s blowing matter into intergalactic space. New research shows that magnetic fields are also contributing to the expulsion of material from Messier 82, a well-known example of a starburst galaxy with a distinctive, elongated shape.
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IMAGE: The giant flare, cataloged as GRB 200415A, reached detectors on different NASA spacecraft at different times. Each instrument pair established its possible location in different swaths of the sky, but. view more
Credit: NASA s Goddard Space Flight Center and Adam Block/Mount Lemmon SkyCenter/University of Arizona
On April 15, 2020, a brief burst of high-energy light swept through the solar system, triggering instruments on several NASA and European spacecraft. Now, multiple international science teams conclude that the blast came from a supermagnetized stellar remnant known as a magnetar located in a neighboring galaxy.
This finding confirms long-held suspicions that some gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) - cosmic eruptions detected in the sky almost daily - are in fact powerful flares from magnetars relatively close to home.
Two years later, in October 2018, the European Commission launched the «
Quantum Technologies Flagship » programme to support hundreds of quantum science researchers over a ten-year period. Allocated a budget of €1 billion, its aim is to help convert European research into commercial applications that fully exploit the potential of quantum technology.
European Union countries have also launched their own quantum initiatives, with the United Kingdom and Germany leading the way. In 2013, the UK became the first country in Europe to announce its own quantum strategy, investing €370 million over five years. In 2018, the country set up a national computing centre, with the aim of designing, developing and building a quantum computer. Finally, in June 2019, the British government announced an additional investment of £153 million in quantum computing, with industry pledging a further £205 million.
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IMAGE: GIF showing the potential distances over which thinning can spread into Greenland s interior. Glaciers in regions of higher elevation, tend to pervade less inland than those in regions of lower. view more
Credit: Credits: Denis Felikson
As glaciers flow outward from the Greenland Ice Sheet, what lies beneath them offers clues to their role in future ice thinning and sea-level rise contribution.
Outlet glaciers are rivers of ice flowing within the cracks of the bedrock and draining into the surrounding sea. They retreat and start to thin as climate warms, and this thinning works its way toward the center of the ice sheet. Now, by looking at the bed topography beneath the ice, scientists have a better understanding of which glaciers could have a significant impact on the Greenland Ice Sheet s contribution to sea-level rise in coming years. They found that some glaciers flowing over gentler slopes could have a greater impact than previously thought. The