Scientists Discover the Universe’s Strongest Magnetic Field
(RedOrbit) Scientists from The University of Exeter and the International University, Bremen, Germany have discovered what may be the strongest magnetic field in the Universe.
The scientists have shown that this field, which is 1000 million million times larger than the Earth’s magnetic field, is created by violent collisions between neutron stars in the outer reaches of space.
Neutron stars are the collapsed core of a massive star remaining after a supernova explosion. When two neutron stars are left orbiting each other, they spiral slowly together, resulting in these massive collisions.
Dr. Daniel Price, of the School of Physics at The University of Exeter, describes the research: "We have managed to simulate, for the first time, what happens to the magnetic field when neutron stars collide, and it seems possible that the magnetic field produced could be sufficient to spark the creation of Gamma-ray bursts. Gamma-ray bursts are the most powerful explosions we can detect but until recently little to nothing has been known about how they are generated.
It’s thought that strong magnetic fields are essential in producing them, but until now no one has shown how fields of the required intensity could be created."
"Even more incredible is that the magnetic field strengths reached in the simulations are just lower limits on the strengths that may actually be produced in nature," says Professor Stephan Rosswog, of the International University, Bremen, Germany.
The work is published in the journal Science.
By Karen Ventii of RedOrbit from Wire reports