India, which was successful in landing Chandrayaan-3 on the south pole of the Moon, is now continuously busy solving the mysteries of space. Recently, Indian scientists have detected the phenomenon of X-ray burst in space.
This explosion occurred in an ultrahigh magnetic field (magnetar). This astronomical event has been captured by ISRO’s Astrosat spacecraft. This may help in understanding situations related to magnetor.
According to the Union Ministry of Science and Technology, magnetars are neutron stars which have ultrahigh magnetic fields. It is much stronger than the terrestrial magnetic field.
The magnetar’s magnetic field is one quadrillion times stronger than Earth’s magnetic field. Researchers said, this was one of the brightest explosions. Its duration was 90 milliseconds.
To study the magnetar, scientists from Raman Research Institute (RRI) and Delhi University have installed two instruments LAXPC and SXT on Astrosat, using which the magnetar was analyzed.
The scientists’ key objective was to detect 67 short X-ray bursts with an average duration of 33 milliseconds. The magnetar that detected this explosion is called SGR J1830-0645.
It was discovered by NASA’s Swift spacecraft in October 2020. This is a neutron star about 24 thousand years old.
energy generated from the surface of a neutron star
Scientists said, this energy created in SGR J1830-0645 was different from the energy found in many other magnetars. It must have originated from the surface of the neutron star.
Thus, this research contributes to furthering our understanding of magnetars and their extreme astrophysical conditions.
The research team now plans to expand their further studies to understand the origin of these highly energetic bursts and find out whether these emissions are astronomical or of other nature.