Essay Sample on Magnetars
Magnetars are incredible and mesmerizing condensed balls of matter drifting along in space. But what is a magnetar, how are they formed, how powerful are they, and what happens after they die?
To start, magnetars are a type of neutron star. A neutron star is the core of a star left over after a supernova. Magnetars are a variant of neutron stars. A supernova happens when the core of a star collapses in on itself. The result from this causes a supernova. When stars with a bigger core explode, usually the core turns into a black hole. But sometimes when stars are expected to turn into blackoles they become magnetars. This is the basic anatomy of a magnetar.
For many years the formation of magnetars was unknown because mathematically they should have turned into black holes. Scientists had only a couple solutions to the formation of these astonishing masses in space. One of which was that there had to be a companion star that helped form a magnetar. Then they started looking for a star that was traveling very fast through space near a magnetar, and, sure enough, they found one. This confirmed their theory of magnetars. Magnetars being so complicated, their formation was split into multiple stages.
The first stage of this formation starts with two stars with one bigger than the other are next to each other. When the more massive star starts to run out of fuel and gives the smaller star its outer layers. The smaller star starts to rotate more and more quickly because of this. This rapid rotation is thought to be how magnetars get their insanely strong magnetic field. The smaller star then becomes so massive that it gets rid of most of the recently gained mass. Lots of this mass is lost, but some goes back to the original bigger star. This game of hot potato allows the originally smaller star to shrink down enough to form a magnetar instead of a black hole. As shown magnetars have a very rich backstory.
The power of magnetars is almost unmatched except by black holes. Magnetars have the strongest magnetic field ever recorded. They can score over 1 million on the gauss scale. For comparison, the strongest magnet ever had a gauss score of 14,000, and that magnet alone was incredibly powerful. One amazing thing about magnetars is because of their unfathomably strong magnetic field. If you put a marshmallow in a magnetars atmosphere, the marshmallow would hit the star with the force of 1,000 nitrogen bonds. For reference, 1 hydrogen bomb has a blast radius of 250 miles. Scientists say that a hydrogen bomb could kill 100 - 1,000 more people than an atomic bomb. One more incredible thing about magnetars' magnetic field is that it is one trillion times stronger than Earth's. Another thing that shows a magnetars power is that magnetars are so unimaginably dense that a teaspoon of magnetar weighs around one million tons. Lastly, magnetars surface can be up to 18 million degrees Fahrenheit. These facts show the shear strength of a magnetar.
In conclusion, magnetars are swirling balls of condensed matter floating in space in a constant state of destruction. This is not a well-known topic, nor is it important, but it's fascinating nonetheless.
