Fact Sheet
Magnetic Blast
Aided by powerful magnetic fields and "jets" of gamma rays, a massive star explodes as a supernova in this artist's concept. When one of the jets aims directly at Earth, we see the explosion as a gamma-ray burst, one of the most powerful events in the universe. While the star's outer layers are blasted into space, its core is squeezed to incredible densities. The spinning core produces a powerful magnetic field, so the object is known as a magnetar. [NASA/Swift/Sonoma State University/A. Simonnet]
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