Magnetar Polarizes X-rays Up to 47% ⚡ экспресс
Magnetar 1E 1547.0-5408 is a neutron star with a monstrous magnetic field. The IXPE telescope showed that its X-ray emission is strongly polarized (like light passed through a polaroid filter), and this hints at strange quantum effects. What other surprises do such objects have in store for us?
Neutron stars are ultra-dense remnants of supernovae the size of a city. In the 1930s, Fritz Zwicky hypothesized their existence, and later Jocelyn Bell Burnell discovered pulsars—rapidly rotating neutron stars. Magnetars are the rarest variety, with magnetic fields billions of times stronger than Earth's. It can influence the void itself.
Recently, the IXPE X-ray telescope captured emission from the magnetar 1E 1547.0‑5408 and found an unusual property: almost half the light oscillated strictly in one plane—like after passing through polarizing sunglasses. But while in everyday life polarization is created by a filter, here space itself played that role. The star's magnetic field turned the vacuum into a kind of crystal, aligning the X-ray waves. This 'cosmic crystal' helped refine the tilt of the star's magnetic axis—it turns out it rotates at nearly a right angle.
🎯 A city-sized magnetar carries a hot spot heated to millions of degrees—hotter than the Sun's core.
🎬 In sci-fi, magnetars are fearsome guardians of the deep: their invisible radiation can disable a starship millions of kilometers away.