In a First, Astronomers Witnessed the Birth of a Supermassive Magnetar Following a Glorious Kilonova

[Tom Yossarian Joad]

https://thumbs-prod.si-cdn.com/73YmFRdqSbdYN44Dk0hSsNbm1JU=/800x600/filters:no_upscale()/

This year, astronomers witnessed a cosmic spectacle when two neutron stars—the dense remains of collapsing stars—crashed into each other billions of lightyears away. Their gargantuan collision lit up the galaxy with a flash and gave rise to a magnetar—a supermassive star with a hyper-powerful magnetic field. Astronomers have known about magnetars, but this event marks the first time they've ever witnessed one being born, reports Rafi Letzer for Live Science.

Using remarkably powerful equipment, including the Hubble Space Telescope and the Swift Observatory, the scientists observed a quick flash of light on May 22. The stars' collision certainly didn't occur that night—instead, it occurred 5.47 billion years ago, and its light had just reached Earth, according to a press release.

The team observed a quick flash of gamma radiation, the result of the stars crashing and sending space matter blasting through the galaxy to settle among the stars. Then came the long-burning glow of a kilonova—a colossal explosion that produces heavy elements like gold and platinum—as the space dust swirled around the newly formed magnetar, reports Live Science.

The explosion released more energy in half a second than the sun emits over ten billion years, according to another press release.

/snip

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/first-time-ever-scientists-witnessed-birth-supermassive-magnetar-after-two-stars-collided-180976292/#.X6_HiH8NKyg.facebook

[Karadeniz]

1. Wow!

[orwell]

2. Once again...

...is "the universe" trying to tell us something.

Don the KillaCon ... the universe is on line 1 ... you've been Magnetar'd.

[PatrickforO]

3. 5.7 billion years. What an awesome river of time.

You can't even really get your head around that.

Kind of puts the events of this year in perspective. Not that it excuses Trump...don't get me wrong. A federal prison cell awaits him.

But...5.7 billion years. In the great scope of the universe, sapiens is truly miniscule.

[Celerity]

14. State prison cell, hopefully. I expect he will grant himself a full blanket

pardon for all federal crimes, or have Pence do it via a last minute resignation gambit.

[RVN VET71]

15. We were barely noticed and we won't be missed

Out, out brief candle, and all that.

[PatrickforO]

16. Ah, and yet, we are part of the great web of the Divine.

One of my many favorite poems is the Desiderata by Max Ehrmann. Here's what he says, and it has always been a comfort:

Beyond a wholesome discipline, be gentle with yourself. You are a child of the universe no less than the trees and the stars; you have a right to be here.

Where we have gone wrong, I think, is that we have made ourselves significant unto ourselves at the expense of everything else. I'm currently reading a book by a Potawatomie woman who is a Ph.D. botanist. Her name is Kimmerer and the book is called "Braiding Sweetgrass."

It is quite profound, because instead of the 'rugged individualist who can have everything we want if only we are willing to work harder' mentality that has been so carefully fostered in our (American) culture, she speaks about 'humans with nature' instead of 'humans against nature.'

So the illusory lust for power and wealth that so plagues us, becomes a consciousness of gifts from nature to us, from us to nature, all a great web of life on this mother earth.

What would it mean in the scope of Divine creation, I wonder, if we elevated our consciousness in this way? Oh, we'd still be tiny in the great scope of things, I know, but I expect we would be happier in our own tiny little realm. Too many suffer each day.

[RVN VET71]

17. I agree totally "if", if only the entirety of "we" could do so.

Like Voltaire might say, we cannot expect all humanity to change no matter how obvious it is that such a change as you suggest would make us all happier and actually beneficial to the Earth we are currently hell bent on ruining; so we must cultivate our own gardens, live our own lives according to nature, and accept nature's gifts as something to cherish and give back.

"Il faut cultiver notre jardin," is how Candide said it to Pangloss. So simple yet so obvious.

[eppur_se_muova]

4. I wonder how many advanced civilizations were wiped out by that gamma-ray burst.

If we could detect it from 5.47 billion light years away, it must have toasted a whole galaxy. You know, BILLIONS of planetary systems.

Don't think the Universe is a friendly place. It is largely indifferent to life.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Star_(Clarke_short_story)

[lastlib]

7. "Oh, God, there were so many stars you could have used...."

That story has been a HUGE inspiration to me! Thanks for the reminder!

"What was the need to give these people to the fire, that the star of their passing might shine above Bethlehem?"

[lagomorph777]

9. That's possible - but it also no doubt created many civilizations.

This is the event that creates all the incredibly useful heavy elements in the lower half of the periodic table. We would not exist if not for such events in our galaxy's distant past.

It's also possible that the universe was too young (lacking in stability and heavy elements) for much life to have existed back then. Very hard to know.

[renate]

11. I hadn't thought of that

Now I’m kind of depressed. About something that happened 5.7 billion years ago.

[alfredo]

13. You are a fluke of the universe

[burrowowl]

5. Really far out!

[LudwigPastorius]

6. Whoah!

Wouldn't want to be too close to that thing.

That bad boy would suck the paint off your house and give your family a permanent orange afro.

[lagomorph777]

8. All of the heavy metals that we rely on are the product of an event like this.

This is not just amazing. It is creation. We would not exist if an event like this hadn't happened in the Milky Way's youth.

[cry baby]

10. That wasn't on my bingo card. nt

[JohnnyRingo]

12. Whoa!!

The forces of the universe never cease to intrigue me. That looks like the dreaded gamma ray burst that spews in polar ends to wreak havoc to anything in its way. Luckily it's unlikely we'd be in its direct path.

Thanx for posting this. Love it.