After a Massive Cosmic Explosion, You Can Witness the Birth of a Magnetar

"We know that magnetars exist because we see them in our galaxy. We think most of them are formed in the explosive deaths of massive stars, leaving these highly magnetized neutron stars behind. However, it is possible that a small fraction form in neutron star mergers. We have never seen evidence of that before, let alone in infrared light, making this discovery special," said Northwestern University astrophysicist Wen-fai Fong, who led the research.