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Asked by dramaalpacca to Nick, Francesca, Deepak, Alan on 14 Mar 2014.
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Alan Fitzsimmons answered on 14 Mar 2014:
We believe that all stars are magnetic, and bigger stars have more magnetism. They make their magnetic field the same way a dynamo makes a current, by spinning electrons around.
When a big star explodes at the end of its life, what’s left over is a really tiny star called a neutron star. If that is able to capure most of the magnetism the big star had, it is trapped inside a tiny star so the magnetic field is very strong, so we call is a magnetic neutron star, or “magnetar” for short.
The magnetic fields on the Sun make the hot gas there curl and shift into amazing loops and whirls called prominences.
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Nick Wright answered on 16 Mar 2014:
A magnetar is a type of neutron star with a really strong magnetic field. Neutron stars are really dense and compact stars (imagine the mass of the Sun crammed into an area the size of London!) that are formed when massive stars die. If the massive star has a strong magnetic field when it dies then the magnetic field gets increased when the star collapses to form the neutron star, and so a magnetar is born!
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Francesca Day answered on 18 Mar 2014:
In general, magnetic fields are created by moving charged particles. The magnetic field in a magnetar is caused by electrons spinning round really fast!
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