E-Mail IMAGE: This image contains an exceptional magnetar, a type of neutron star with very powerful magnetic fields. Astronomers have found evidence that this object may be the youngest known magnetar (about 500 years... view more Credit: X-ray: NASA/CXC/Univ. of West Virginia/H. Blumer; Infrared (Spitzer and Wise): NASA/JPLCalTech/Spitzer In 2020, astronomers added a new member to an exclusive family of exotic objects with the discovery of a magnetar. New observations from NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory help support the idea that it is also a pulsar, meaning it emits regular pulses of light. Magnetars are a type of neutron star, an incredibly dense object mainly made up of tightly packed neutron, which forms from the collapsed core of a massive star during a supernova.