Neutron star merger in magnetar with brightest kilonova ever observed

Long ago and far across the universe, an enormous burst of gamma rays unleashed more energy in a half-second than the sun will produce over its entire 10-billion-year lifetime.

After examining the incredibly bright burst with optical, X-ray, near-infrared and radio wavelengths, a Northwestern University-led astrophysics team believes it potentially spotted the birth of a magnetar.

Researchers believe the magnetar was formed by two neutron stars merging, which has never before been observed. The merger resulted in a brilliant kilonova—the brightest ever seen—whose light finally reached Earth on May 22, 2020.

The light first came as a blast of gamma-rays, called a short gamma-ray burst.

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Credit: NASA, ESA, W. Fong (Northwestern University), and T. Laskar (University of Bath, UK)

This image shows the glow from a kilonova caused by the merger of two neutron stars.

The kilonova, whose peak brightness reaches up to 10,000 times that of a classical nova, appears as a bright spot (indicated by the arrow) to the upper left of the host galaxy.

The merger of the neutron stars is believed to have produced a magnetar, which has an extremely powerful magnetic field. The energy from that magnetar brightened the material ejected from the explosion.

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Birth of a magnetar from neutron star merger.

Neutron star merger results in magnetar (a supermassive neutron star with a very powerful magnetic field), accompanied by the brightest kilonova ever observed.