New Type of Massive Magnetic Helium Stars Gives Clues to Magnetars’ Origins | ESO

New Type of Massive Magnetic Helium Stars Gives Clues to Magnetars’ Origins | ESO

ESOcast 264 Light: Using multiple telescopes around the world, including European Southern Observatory (ESO) facilities, researchers have uncovered a living star that is likely to become a magnetar, an ultra-magnetic dead star that is a variant of neutron stars. This video summarizes the discovery. Magnetars are the strongest magnets in the Universe. These super-dense dead stars with ultra-strong magnetic fields can be found all over our galaxy but astronomers do not know exactly how they form. This finding marks the discovery of a new type of astronomical object—massive magnetic helium stars—and sheds light on the origin of magnetars.

Despite having been observed for over 100 years, the enigmatic nature of the star HD 45166 could not be easily explained by conventional models, and little was known about it beyond the fact that it is one of a pair of stars, is rich in helium and is a few times more massive than our Sun. HD 45166 is located about 3,000 light-years away in the constellation Monoceros (the Unicorn). This star was discovered to have an incredibly strong magnetic field, of 43,000 gauss, making HD 45166 the most magnetic massive helium star found to date.

In a few million years, HD 45166 will explode as a very bright, but not particularly energetic, supernova. During this explosion, its core will contract, trapping and concentrating the star’s already daunting magnetic field lines. The result will be a neutron star with a magnetic field of around 100 trillion gauss—the most powerful type of magnet in the Universe.

Neutron stars, the compact remains of a massive star following a supernova explosion, are the densest matter in the Universe. Some neutron stars, known as magnetars, also claim the record for the strongest magnetic fields of any object. How magnetars, which are a mere 15 kilometers across, form and produce such colossal magnetic fields remains a mystery.

Video & Caption Credits: ESO/NOIRLab

Directed by: Angelos Tsaousis and Martin Wallner

Editing: Angelos Tsaousis

Web and technical support: Gurvan Bazin and Raquel Yumi Shida

Written by: Claudia Sciarma and Tom Howarth

Footage and photos:  ESO / L. Calçada, Angelos Tsaousis, B. Tafreshi, P. Horálek, Zdeněk Bardon, José Francisco Salgado

Scientific consultant: Paola Amico, Mariya Lyubenova

Duration: 1 minute, 38 seconds

Release Date: Aug. 17, 2023

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