SGR 0501+4516

SGR 0501+4516 is a soft gamma repeater (SGR), and is an ancient stellar remnant. Currently, the phenomenons of SGRs and the related Anomalous X-ray pulsars (AXP) are explained as arising from magnetars. SGR 0501+4516 is located approximately 15,000 light years from Earth and has a magnetic field 100 trillion times stronger than the Earth’s.[1]

SGR 0501+4516 is remarkable in that it has been the first SGR to have been discovered after ten years without SGR detections.[2] It has been suggested that SGR 0501+4516, together with 1E 1547.0-5408, should be considered as tools for a final unification of SGRs, AXPs and the “transient AXPs (TAXPs)” into a single class of “magnetars candidates”.[2]

Discovery

Its existence has been reported on Aug. 22, 2008, by NASA's Swift satellite, which reported numerous blasts of radiation from the object. The eruptions has been subsequently in-depth studied using the European Space Agency's XMM-Newton and International Gamma-Ray Astrophysics Laboratory (INTEGRAL) satellites.[1] The object had been serendipitously observed before in 1992 by ROSAT.[2]

References

  1. 1 2 http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/swift/bursts/magnetar_europe.html
  2. 1 2 3 N. Rea, G. L. Israel, R. Turoll et al., The first outburst of the new magnetar candidate SGR 0501+4516, Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, Volume 396, Issue 4, pages 2419–2432, July 2009, DOI:10.1111/j.1365-2966.2009.14920.x, arXiv:0904.2413
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