A magnetar giant flare in the nearby starburst galaxy M82. (https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/38658757/)

These scientists wanted to study rare and powerful explosions called magnetar giant flares that happen in space. These flares come from young neutron stars with very strong magnetic fields. They are so bright that they release a huge amount of energy in a very short time.

The scientists had only seen a few of these flares in our own galaxy and in a nearby galaxy called the Large Magellanic Cloud. They wanted to find out if similar flares were happening in other galaxies far away.

They found a bright burst of energy coming from a galaxy called M82, and they studied it carefully. They looked at the type of light it gave off and how long it lasted. They also checked if there were any other signals like X-rays or gravitational waves coming from the same place.

After looking at all the evidence, the scientists were able to confirm that the burst of energy they saw in M82 was indeed a giant flare from a magnetar. This discovery helps us learn more about these rare and powerful events happening in distant galaxies.

Mereghetti S., Rigoselli M., Salvaterra R., Pacholski DP., Rodi JC., Gotz D., Arrigoni E., D'Avanzo P., Adami C., Bazzano A., Bozzo E., Brivio R., Campana S., Cappellaro E., Chenevez J., De Luise F., Ducci L., Esposito P., Ferrigno C., Ferro M., Israel GL., Le Floc'h E., Martin-Carrillo A., Onori F., Rea N., Reguitti A., Savchenko V., Souami D., Tartaglia L., Thuillot W., Tiengo A., Tomasella L., Topinka M., Turpin D., Ubertini P. A magnetar giant flare in the nearby starburst galaxy M82. Nature. 2024 May;629(8010):58-61. doi: 10.1038/s41586-024-07285-4. Epub 2024 Apr 24.