Rare stellar magnetic 'monster' discovered

PARIS, July 18 (UPI) -- A fleet of X-ray telescopes in space has identified a rare breed of dead, spinning star that may be a pulsar or a magnetar, European astronomers say.

Magnetars are a type of neutron star, the dead cores of massive stars that collapse in on themselves after burning up all their fuel and explode as dramatic supernovas, showing persistent X-ray emissions and the most intense magnetic fields known in the universe.

Pulsars are spinning neutron stars with much lower magnetic fields than magnetars that appear to pulse radio waves as they rotate rapidly.

The recently discovered star appears to be a strange hybrid of the two, spinning like a pulsar yet possessing an intense internal magnetic field much like a magnetar, the European Space Agency reported.

The internal field is many times stronger than its external magnetic field, putting the star into a new class of "low-field magnetars," astronomers said.

Only two examples of low-field magnetars are known, with the first discovered in 2010 and the second in July 2011.

Both space-based X-ray telescopes and ground-based telescopes monitored the second star's activity until April of this year, as its X-ray outburst began to decay, the ESA said.

The discovery of a second magnetar suggests such stellar behavior may be more common than previously thought, astronomers said.