5.5 billion light years away, thousands of new stars gave birth to a magnetic star, and the traditional theory was challenged again.

In the universe, there are not only black holes, but also an equally frightening celestial body, that is magnetic stars.

Compared with the earth's magnetic field of less than 7 10-5 Tesla, the magnetic field intensity of a magnetic star can reach the horrible 1000 billion Tesla, which is one trillion times that of the earth! Even the magnetic field of 10 billion Tesla, located on the moon more than 380,000 kilometers away from us, is enough to degauss a bank card on the earth!

Scientists pointed out that the essence of a magnetic star is actually a neutron star, which belongs to a kind of neutron star. However, how magnetars are produced remains a mystery. Recently, a research team led by Wen-fai Fong, an astronomer from Northwestern University, discovered 1,000 new stars 5.5 billion light years away, which may tell us the origin of this terrible celestial body.

The so-called thousand nova refers to astronomical events during the merger of two compact stars, such as double neutron stars, double black holes or the merger of neutron stars and black holes, which is named because the peak brightness can reach 1000 times that of ordinary nova. In the process of merger, thousands of new stars will explode strong electromagnetic radiation and gravitational waves, resulting in larger celestial bodies.

So far, the most famous gravitational wave GW 1708 17 was first detected by LIGO and Virgo teams. Thousands of nova events come from the collision of two neutron stars, which not only releases gravitational waves, but also emits strong electromagnetic waves in many bands, such as gamma-ray bursts, which can help scientists understand some details of thousands of nova events.

Scientists are confident that when they see thousands of new stars again, they can observe them according to this information and determine what we are observing.

However, contrary to expectations, when scientists examined GRB 200522A this gamma ray burst, they thought they could see thousands of familiar new stars, but they found something different.

At that time, Neil Galswift Observatory of NASA first discovered a beam of light 5.5 billion light years away. As a telescope dedicated to capturing high-energy events in the universe, its early warning system immediately acted and contacted telescopes all over the world. Subsequently, the world's most advanced observation equipment, such as the very large telescope array in Chile, the W.M. Keck Observatory in Hawaii, the Rasquin Bryce Observatory in California, and even the Hubble telescope soaring in space, were informed and aimed at this direction in the depths of the universe.

They observed and analyzed gamma-ray bursts that lasted only 2 seconds from various bands, indicating that the Thousand Nova event came from the merger of two neutron stars. When they looked at the near-infrared band data of Hubble telescope, the problem appeared.

According to the observation data of Hubble Space Telescope, the infrared ray released by this thousand nova event is extremely bright, which is 10 times stronger than the infrared region generated by the collision of neutron stars in theory!

Fong said: "These observations are inconsistent with the traditional explanation of short gamma ray bursts. According to our understanding of the radio and X-ray data of this epidemic, it can even be said that it is out of place. Even in Hubble's near-infrared band, it is too bright. "

The theory of human astrophysics is challenged again.

Tanmoy Laskar, an astronomer at the University of Bath, said: "As more and more data appear, we can draw images of the generation mechanism of those light sources we see. We need to completely change our thinking, because Hubble's extra information makes us realize that we need to abandon our previous theories and look at the new astronomical phenomena that are being staged. Then, we need to figure out what is the physical mechanism behind these extremely high-energy explosions. "

As we know, neutron stars are compact stars, which generally come from the core of death stars. The mass of this celestial body is between 1. 1 and 2.5 times that of the sun, but these substances are highly concentrated, so that they are very small, with a diameter of only 10-20 kilometers and a surface area not as large as that of an ordinary city.

And if two such horrible celestial bodies collide, they will release extremely huge energy, accompanied by powerful gamma ray bursts. The merger of two neutron stars may produce a black hole, provided that the combined mass exceeds the Oppenheimer limit. For example, the famous GW 1708 17 may eventually leave a black hole in its original place (too far to be detected).

Different from it, the near infrared brightness of GRB 200522A Nova shows that the product it left behind may not be a black hole, but another horrible celestial body, that is, a magnetic star.

We have already introduced the characteristics of magnetars at the beginning. Their terrible magnetic field makes them unique in the universe. Although it is also a kind of neutron star, its magnetic field is more than 1000 times stronger than that of ordinary neutron stars.

Laska said: "In essence, these magnetic lines are fixed on this planet and can rotate more than 1000 times per second, thus generating a powerful magnetized wind. These rotating magnetic lines of force gain energy during the merger of neutron stars and inject them into the explosive jet, thus making it brighter. "

At present, this is only a guess, and more observations are needed to prove it. But so far, only 24 magnetars have been observed and confirmed by human beings, which is quite limited, which also brings great restrictions to related research. If two neutron stars really merge into magnetic stars in GRB 200522A event, it will be very helpful for us to understand the formation mechanism of this mysterious celestial body. Prior to this, scientists believed that magnetars came from supernova explosions.

Fong pointed out: "We know that there are magnetic stars in the universe because we have observed them in the Milky Way. We think that magnetars are basically neutron stars left after the explosion and death of massive stars, which are formed after high magnetization. However, a small number of magnetic stars may come from the merger of neutron stars. We have never found relevant clues before, let alone in the infrared band, so this discovery is particularly noteworthy. "

However, they can't come to a conclusion yet. After all, whether it is a thousand new stars or magnetic stars, human understanding is still very limited. Even more embarrassing than magnetar, human beings have only explored GW 1708 17, a thousand new stars. The merger of two dense stars is not common. Scientists need to seize every opportunity to get close to the most extreme physical laws in the universe and understand the most extreme celestial bodies in the universe.