Repeated injections of energy in the first 600 ms of the giant flare of SGR 1806–20

Toshio Terasawa (), Yasuyuki T. Tanaka, Yasuhiro Takei, Nobuyuki Kawai, Atsumasa Yoshida, Ken'ichi Nomoto, Ichiro Yoshikawa, Yoshifumi Saito, Yasumasa Kasaba, Takeshi Takashima, Toshifumi Mukai, Hirotomo Noda, Toshio Murakami, Kyoko Watanabe, Yasushi Muraki, Takaaki Yokoyama and Masahiro Hoshino
Additional contact information
Toshio Terasawa: University of Tokyo
Yasuyuki T. Tanaka: University of Tokyo
Yasuhiro Takei: University of Tokyo
Nobuyuki Kawai: Tokyo Institute of Technology
Atsumasa Yoshida: Aoyama Gakuin University
Ken'ichi Nomoto: University of Tokyo
Ichiro Yoshikawa: University of Tokyo
Yoshifumi Saito: ISAS/JAXA
Yasumasa Kasaba: ISAS/JAXA
Takeshi Takashima: ISAS/JAXA
Toshifumi Mukai: ISAS/JAXA
Hirotomo Noda: National Astronomical Observatory
Toshio Murakami: Kanazawa University
Kyoko Watanabe: Nagoya University
Yasushi Muraki: Nagoya University
Takaaki Yokoyama: University of Tokyo
Masahiro Hoshino: University of Tokyo

Nature, 2005, vol. 434, issue 7037, 1110-1111

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
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DOI: 10.1038/nature03573

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