Magnetars

Scientists have made been making new observations of magnetars, the most powerful magnetic objects in the universe. They’re big:

Observations of a gas bubble surrounding one magnetar showed astronomers that the star is 30 to 40 times the mass of the Sun. […] “The surprising thing is how big this bubble is,” Gaensler says. “It’s huge. The Sun’s bubble is a tiny fraction of a light year across. This thing is dozens of light years across.”

They’re immensely powerful:

[…] magnetars spin much faster, up to 1000 times a second, and emit gamma-ray flashes. This spinning generates their powerful magnetic fields - a million billion times stronger than Earth’s.

They’re rarer than hens’ teeth:

Since the first discovery in 1998, astronomers have confirmed only 11 magnetars, most of them in our own galaxy, the Milky Way.

However, all this is missing the big point. According to The Scotsman, if we’re really unlucky, a magnetar could put a kink in our next shopping spree:

The strange objects have magnetic fields so strong that if one was placed half way to the moon it would wipe out every credit card on Earth, said astronomers.

Because if a supermassive object dozens of light years across popped up between the Earth and the Moon, our ability to use our credit cards would be the first thing on our minds.

(In the spirit of Size of Wales, The Scotsman could have pointed out that the magnetar weighed as much as 5.96676×10²⁸ African elephants. Give or take a decimal place or two. Imagine all the mucking-out that herd would require. Or the size of the zoo to hold ‘em, come to that.)

[New Scientist article via Amygdala, Scotsman article via The Inquirer]