Freethought & Rationalism Archive

Friar Bellows · 01-30-2003, 04:57 PM

Astronomers have found good evidence for the existence of magnetars, objects which produce the most insanely powerful magnetic fields in the universe:

Stongest Magnet in the Cosmos

A few excerpts:

Quote:

In November 1996 a NASA satellite called the Rossi X-ray Timing Explorer (RXTE) was monitoring a rare type of pulsar some 40 000 light-years from Earth. The star, called SGR 1806-20, is one of just four known "soft gamma repeaters" -- rotating neutron stars that periodically emit huge bursts of gamma rays. Now an international team of astrophysicists studying the RXTE data has found evidence for what is known as a magnetar -- the most magnetic object in the universe.

Quote:

Neutron stars are now known to possess very intense magnetic fields, of the order of 100 million tesla, which is about six orders of magnitude greater than the strongest magnetic field in an ordinary star or that can be produced in a laboratory. But actually explaining the magnetic fields found in pulsars is a big challenge for theoretical astrophysicists. Ten years ago Robert Duncan from the University of Texas and Christopher Thompson from the University of North Carolina showed that during the formation of a neutron star, convective motions combined with fast rotation give rise to fields of up to 100 billion tesla. They dubbed neutron stars with such enormous fields "magnetars", and astronomers immediately began to search for them.

Six orders of magnitude is a factor of a million, so these magnetars have magnetic fields roughly a billion times stronger than the strongest magnets we've built on Earth. Wow!

For more information, here's an excellent web page about magnetars. Just one excerpt from it:

Quote:

Physicists have not made steady fields stronger than 4.5 x 10^5 Gauss (45 tesla) in the lab because the magnetic stresses of such fields exceed the tensile strength of terrestrial materials. If you try to make stronger fields, magnetic forces will blow apart your electromagnet.
Using chemical high explosives to drive implosions, it is possible to compress a magnetic field and reach higher field strengths, at least for a tiny fraction of a second. This has been done at Los Alamos Laboratory in the U.S., and at a nuclear weapons lab in Sarov, Russia, attaining fields of about 10^7 Gauss (1000 tesla) before the equipment was destroyed.

Imagine what a 100 billion tesla magnet would do to your fridge!

Feather · 01-30-2003, 07:35 PM

I'd be more concerned with the spaghetification process first.

Abacus · 01-30-2003, 08:19 PM

A neutron star magnet, eh? I think more than the fridge would be having problems.

Pretty cool article. Thanks for sharing.

fando · 01-30-2003, 09:33 PM

Hey, that reminds me of a documentary that demonstrated the world's most powerful magnet. I forgot how strong it was, but it was hefty enough to make a frog levitate!

Well, more like bounce around the test chamber.

Friar Bellows · 01-30-2003, 09:56 PM

Neutron stars are pretty freakin' weird objects:

The mass of a star packed into a sphere the size of a freakin' city.
A teaspoonful of core material would weigh a billion freakin' tons.
Spin rate of up to 38,000 freakin' rpm (revolutions per minute).
Surface spin speed of up to 20% the speed of freakin' light.
Central core temperature of around 100 million freakin' degrees.
Core is also superconducting: now that's a hot freakin' superconductor.

I've had enough freakin' for one day.

thebeave · 01-31-2003, 07:48 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by fando
Hey, that reminds me of a documentary that demonstrated the world's most powerful magnet. I forgot how strong it was, but it was hefty enough to make a frog levitate! Well, more like bounce around the test chamber.

Awww... poor froggie. I like frogs.

Mr. Sammi · 01-31-2003, 09:43 AM

Quite an effect on might add...

Sammi Na Boodie ()

01-30-2003, 09:56 PM	#5
Friar Bellows Veteran Member Join Date: Apr 2001 Location: arse-end of the world Posts: 2,305	freakin' hell Neutron stars are pretty freakin' weird objects: The mass of a star packed into a sphere the size of a freakin' city. A teaspoonful of core material would weigh a billion freakin' tons. Spin rate of up to 38,000 freakin' rpm (revolutions per minute). Surface spin speed of up to 20% the speed of freakin' light. Central core temperature of around 100 million freakin' degrees. Core is also superconducting: now that's a hot freakin' superconductor. I've had enough freakin' for one day.

01-31-2003, 09:43 AM	#7
Mr. Sammi Banned Join Date: Jun 2002 Location: Montr�al Posts: 367	magnetic power! Quite an effect on might add... Sammi Na Boodie ()

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01-30-2003, 07:35 PM	#2
Feather Veteran Member Join Date: May 2002 Location: Gainesville, FL Posts: 1,827	I'd be more concerned with the spaghetification process first.

01-30-2003, 08:19 PM	#3
Abacus Veteran Member Join Date: Mar 2002 Location: South Dakota Posts: 2,214	A neutron star magnet, eh? I think more than the fridge would be having problems. Pretty cool article. Thanks for sharing.

01-30-2003, 09:33 PM	#4
fando Veteran Member Join Date: Sep 2001 Location: Los Angeles Area Posts: 1,372	Hey, that reminds me of a documentary that demonstrated the world's most powerful magnet. I forgot how strong it was, but it was hefty enough to make a frog levitate! Well, more like bounce around the test chamber.

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