neutron Star discovered known as Swift J1818.0−1607

The beauty of Science, especially astronomy is that there is always something yet to be discovered.

Recently astronomers discovered a Neutron star and named it J1818.0-1607. They call it as cosmic baby. As per the research the new born star is aproximately 24 years old.


This newly discovered star has a magnetic field up to 1,000 times stronger than a typical neutron star and about 100 million times stronger than the most powerful magnets made by humans. Swift J1818.0−1607 belongs to a special class of objects called magnetars, which are the most magnetic objects in the universe.

The youngest discovered star credit goes to NASA’s Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory who spotted the young object on March 12, when it released a massive burst of X-rays. Further research by the European Space Agency’s XMM-Newton observatory and NASA’s NuSTAR telescope, which is led by Caltech and managed by the agency’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, revealed more of the neutron star’s physical characteristics, including those used to estimate its age.

The location of the Swift J1818.0−1607 is within Sagittarius and is relatively close to Earth approximately about 16,000 light-years away. The Swift mission spotted Swift J1818.0−1607 when it began outbursting. In this phase, its X-ray emission became at least 10 times brighter than normal. Outbursting events vary in their specifics, but they usually begin with a sudden increase in brightness over the course of days or weeks that is followed by a gradual decline over months or years as the magnetar returns to its normal brightness.


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Sandeep Madhavan
London , UK