A giant γ-ray flare from the magnetar SGR 1806–20

D. M. Palmer (), S. Barthelmy, N. Gehrels, R. M. Kippen, T. Cayton, C. Kouveliotou, D. Eichler, R. A. M. J. Wijers, P. M. Woods, J. Granot, Y. E. Lyubarsky, E. Ramirez-Ruiz, L. Barbier, M. Chester, J. Cummings, E. E. Fenimore, M. H. Finger, B. M. Gaensler, D. Hullinger, H. Krimm, C. B. Markwardt, J. A. Nousek, A. Parsons, S. Patel, T. Sakamoto, G. Sato, M. Suzuki and J. Tueller
Additional contact information
D. M. Palmer: Los Alamos National Laboratory
S. Barthelmy: NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center
N. Gehrels: NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center
R. M. Kippen: Los Alamos National Laboratory
T. Cayton: Los Alamos National Laboratory
C. Kouveliotou: NASA/Marshall Space Flight Center
D. Eichler: Ben Gurion University
R. A. M. J. Wijers: University of Amsterdam
P. M. Woods: Universities Space Research Association, NSSTC, XD-12
J. Granot: Stanford University
Y. E. Lyubarsky: Ben Gurion University
E. Ramirez-Ruiz: Institute for Advanced Study
L. Barbier: NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center
M. Chester: Pennsylvania State University
J. Cummings: NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center
E. E. Fenimore: Los Alamos National Laboratory
M. H. Finger: Universities Space Research Association, NSSTC, XD-12
B. M. Gaensler: Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics
D. Hullinger: NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center
H. Krimm: NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center
C. B. Markwardt: NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center
J. A. Nousek: Pennsylvania State University
A. Parsons: NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center
S. Patel: Universities Space Research Association, NSSTC, XD-12
T. Sakamoto: NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center
G. Sato: Institute of Space and Astronautical Science (ISAS)/JAXA
M. Suzuki: Saitama University
J. Tueller: NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center

Nature, 2005, vol. 434, issue 7037, 1107-1109

Abstract: Flares back in fashion On 27 December last year, SGR1806–20, a soft γ-ray repeater in Sagittarius, released a giant flare that has been called the brightest explosion ever recorded. SGRs are X-ray stars that sporadically emit low-energy γ-ray bursts. They are thought to be magnetars: neutron stars with observable emissions powered by magnetic dissipation. Five papers in this issue report initial and follow-up observations of this event. The data are remarkable: for instance in a fifth of a second, the flare released as much energy as the Sun radiates in a quarter of a million years. Such power can be explained by catastrophic global crust failure and magnetic reconnection on a magnetar. Releasing a hundred times the energy of the only two previous SGR giant flares, this may have been a once-in-a-lifetime event for astronomers, and for the star itself.

Date: 2005
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.nature.com/articles/nature03525 Abstract (text/html)
Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:nat:nature:v:434:y:2005:i:7037:d:10.1038_nature03525

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://www.nature.com/

DOI: 10.1038/nature03525

Access Statistics for this article

Nature is currently edited by Magdalena Skipper

More articles in Nature from Nature
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().