1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:04,000 [Music throughout] A high-energy 2 00:00:04,000 --> 00:00:08,000 outburst seen in April 2020 confirmed the surprising range 3 00:00:08,000 --> 00:00:12,000 of supermagnetized objects called magnetars. 4 00:00:12,000 --> 00:00:16,000 This blast of X-rays and gamma rays triggered instruments on several spacecraft. 5 00:00:16,000 --> 00:00:20,000 The eruption was over in the blink of an eye and originated 6 00:00:20,000 --> 00:00:24,000 from a galaxy about 11 million light-years away. 7 00:00:24,000 --> 00:00:28,000 Magnetars are part of the family of compact objects known as neutron stars, 8 00:00:28,000 --> 00:00:32,000 the crushed, leftover cores of exploded stars. 9 00:00:32,000 --> 00:00:36,000 What makes magnetars special are their incredibly strong 10 00:00:36,000 --> 00:00:40,000 magnetic fields — up to 1,000 times stronger than a typical neutron 11 00:00:40,000 --> 00:00:44,000 star’s. Sudden changes to this ultrastrong field are thought 12 00:00:44,000 --> 00:00:48,000 to drive brief, enormously powerful outbursts called giant flares. 13 00:00:48,000 --> 00:00:52,000 One giant flare in our own galaxy affected Earth’s upper 14 00:00:52,000 --> 00:00:56,000 atmosphere — from 28,000 light-years away. 15 00:00:56,000 --> 00:01:00,000 On April 15th, detectors on NASA’s 16 00:01:00,000 --> 00:01:04,000 Fermi, Swift, Mars Odyssey and Wind missions, as well as 17 00:01:04,000 --> 00:01:08,000 on the European Space Agency’s INTEGRAL satellite, picked up a 18 00:01:08,000 --> 00:01:12,000 rapid surge of X-rays and gamma rays. Using the arrival times of 19 00:01:12,000 --> 00:01:16,000 the signal at different spacecraft, astronomers pinned the burst to 20 00:01:16,000 --> 00:01:20,000 NGC 253, a bright, nearby galaxy. 21 00:01:20,000 --> 00:01:24,000 From start to finish, the event lasted 140 milliseconds — as 22 00:01:24,000 --> 00:01:28,000 fast as a finger snap. Astronomers see 23 00:01:28,000 --> 00:01:32,000 gamma-ray bursts, or GRBs, almost every day. We know that 24 00:01:32,000 --> 00:01:36,000 at least some of the shortest GRBs come from merging neutron stars 25 00:01:36,000 --> 00:01:40,000 more than 100 million light-years away. The April blast 26 00:01:40,000 --> 00:01:44,000 initially looked similar to these events. But a GRB located 27 00:01:44,000 --> 00:01:48,000 in our own galactic neighborhood should have appeared much brighter. 28 00:01:48,000 --> 00:01:52,000 As astronomers explored this new burst in detail, they 29 00:01:52,000 --> 00:01:56,000 found it looked less like a short GRB and more like a magnetar 30 00:01:56,000 --> 00:02:00,000 giant flare. Astronomers have recorded two such 31 00:02:00,000 --> 00:02:04,000 flares inside our own galaxy and a third in a satellite galaxy. 32 00:02:04,000 --> 00:02:08,000 All of these bursts displayed a spikey tail as they faded out. 33 00:02:08,000 --> 00:02:12,000 The spikes form as the flare's hot spot spins in and out of view, 34 00:02:12,000 --> 00:02:16,000 like a lighthouse beam. Current instruments can’t detect 35 00:02:16,000 --> 00:02:20,000 this feature in flares located at great distances, but other 36 00:02:20,000 --> 00:02:24,000 characteristics, such as their extremely fast rise in brightness, are 37 00:02:24,000 --> 00:02:28,000 unmatched by short GRBs. This fueled 38 00:02:28,000 --> 00:02:32,000 astronomers’ growing suspicions that short GRBs associated with galaxies 39 00:02:32,000 --> 00:02:36,000 in our neighborhood might really be magnetar giant flares. 40 00:02:36,000 --> 00:02:40,000 Now, the precise localization of the 2020 event 41 00:02:40,000 --> 00:02:44,000 to the disk of the Sculptor galaxy has unmasked them at last. 42 00:02:44,000 --> 00:02:48,000 Astronomers suspect that a few percent of observed short GRBs 43 00:02:48,000 --> 00:02:52,000 may in fact be giant flares — high-powered eruptions 44 00:02:52,000 --> 00:02:56,000 in our galactic back yard produced by the strongest 45 00:02:56,000 --> 00:03:00,000 magnets in the cosmos. 46 00:03:00,000 --> 00:03:05,600 NASA