Astronomers Have Seen A Record-Breaking Magnetic Field In Space, And It's Incredible
Deep in the Milky Way, roughly 22,000 light-years from Earth, a star unlike any other roars with a magnetic force that beats anything physicists have ever seen. With 1.6 billion Tesla, a pulsar called Swift J0243.6+6124 broke the previous record of around 1 billion Tesla, found in the vicinity of pulsars GRO J1008-57 and 1A 0535+262. For a little context, your average new fridge magnet comes in at around 0.001 Tesla. More powerful MRI machines manage to reach around 3 Tesla. A few years ago, engineers were credited with hitting the semi-respectable 1,200 Tesla, keeping it in a flash of just 100 microseconds. So it makes sense that 1.6 billion Tesla would demand some truly amazing physics. The kind that can only be achieved by massive objects crammed into impossible volumes and spinning at incredible speeds, fast enough to accelerate electrons to ridiculous speeds. Swift J0243.6+6124 is already considered a noteworthy star. A type of super-compact cosmic heavyweight known as a pulsar