Magnetar opened its doors for business.
Is it a particularly powerful supernova,
a white dwarf brutally dislocated by a black hole, a Magnetar or a gamma-ray burst?
The SEC alleges that by the
time the deal closed in May 2007, Magnetar held a $600 million short position
that dwarfed its $8.9 million long position.
The repeater lives in a small galaxy with a lot of star formation- the kind of environment where a
neutron star could be born, hence the Magnetar model.
But the findings also mean that the Magnetar model, accepted by many as the source of the repeating burst, does not really work for these one-off flashes.
Over the next few months, the burst flashed many more times, not regularly, but often enough to allow researchers to determine its host galaxy and consider its possible source- likely a highly magnetized, young,
rapidly spinning neutron star(or Magnetar).
Over the next few months, the burst flashed many more times, not regularly, but often enough to allow researchers to determine its host galaxy and consider its possible source- likely, a highly magnetised young,
rapidly spinning neutron star(or Magnetar).