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[Music throughout]

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Meet SGR 1830-0645,

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a newfound magnetar 13,000 light-years away

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that’s done something never seen before.

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It’s a neutron star –

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the crushed core of an exploded sun –

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with a superstrong magnetic field.

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In October 2020, it suddenly became much brighter in X-rays.

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NASA’s NICER telescope

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on the International Space Station monitored the outburst

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for more than a month.

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The X-ray emission showed a triple-peak pattern

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repeating every 10.4 seconds as the magnetar spun around.

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The peaks came as

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three surface hot spots rotated into our view.

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NICER tracked these spots

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as they drifted across the star and changed size.

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Two of them even merged – a behavior not seen before.

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Scientists think the spots arose when sudden changes

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in the magnetar’s crust disturbed the magnetic field.

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This released energy

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that produced the spots, as well as dozens of powerful X-ray bursts.

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NICER’s near-daily observations

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of the SGR 1830 outburst made this finding possible.

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music fades

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NASA