Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer. Neutron stars are formed in the violent crucibles of stellar explosions. Some become pulsars with relatively weak magnetic fields, spinning and emitting pulses of electromagnetic radiation as their rotation slows. However, astronomers now believe that some become magnetars, with magnetic fields so intense that the solid neutron star crust buckles and shifts under its influence. This still frame from an animation illustrating a spinning, flashing magnetar emphasizes the looping magnetic field lines embedded in the X-ray hot neutron star surface.
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