NASA Detects Wind Nebula Around Rare Ultra-Magnetic Neutron Star

Astronomers have detected for the first time a vast cloud of high-energy particles, dubbed as wind nebula, surrounding a rare ultra-magnetic neutron star or magnetar, which are the strongest magnets in the universe.

The discovery was described in a paper published in the Astrophysical Journal.

According to the paper, the newly discovered wind nebula surrounds the magnetar Swift J1834.9-0846, or J1834.9 for short. The nebula was first detected on September 2011 using the European Space Agency's (ESA) XMM-Newton X-ray observatory. On March and October 2014, new XMM-Newton observation, together with archival data from XMM-Newton and Swift, confirmed that the unusual lopsided glow about 15 light-years across the center of J1834 is indeed the first wind nebula ever identified around a magnetar.

Nebula mostly occurs around young pulsars. Pulsars are type of neutron star that produce radio, visible light, X-rays and gamma rays at various locations in their surrounding magnetic fields. The magnetic fields of typical pulsars can be 100 billion to 10 trillion times stronger than Earth's. On the other hand, magnetars can have magnetic fields thousand times stronger than pulsars.

At present, only 29 of the approximately 2,600 known neutron stars are classified as magnetars. It is not yet known how magnetars were formed.

"For me the most interesting question is, why is this the only magnetar with a nebula? Once we know the answer, we might be able to understand what makes a magnetar and what makes an ordinary pulsar," said Chryssa Kouveliotou, a professor in the Department of Physics at George Washington University's Columbian College of Arts and Sciences and co-author of the paper, in a statement.

As oppose to pulsar, which uses its rotational energy to produce light and accelerate its pulsar winds, magnetars generate brief gales of accelerated particles through the release of stored energy caused by the reconfiguration of super-strong magnetic field into lower-energy state.

Researchers currently have no idea how J1834 developed and maintained a wind nebula. However, researchers believe that nebula's glow is being powered by 10 percent of the magnetar's rotational energy loss.