I don't see a thread started for this yet... But figured HZ folks would find it interesting.

(The Hibernating Stellar Magnet)

http://www.spacedaily.com/reports/The_Hibernating_Stellar_Magnet_999.html

http://www.eso.org/public/outreach/press-rel/pr-2008/pr-31-08.html

Astronomers have discovered a most bizarre celestial object that emitted 40 visible-light flashes before disappearing again ... the first case of an object with an amazingly powerful magnetic field that showed some brief, strong visible-light activity.

This weird object initially misled its discoverers as it showed up as a gamma-ray burst, suggesting the death of a star in the distant Universe. But soon afterwards, it exhibited some unique behaviour that indicates its origin is much closer to us.

After the initial gamma-ray pulse, there was a three-day period of activity during which 40 visible-light flares were observed, followed by a brief near-infrared flaring episode 11 days later, which was recorded by ESO's Very Large Telescope. Then the source became dormant again.

They go on to speculate about a "magnetar."

(Paper: Flares from a candidate Galactic magnetar suggest a missing link to dim isolated neutron stars)

http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v455/n7212/abs/nature07328.html

Anyway, it's slightly amusing that they first through it was a GRB from a star dying on the edge of the visible universe, and then they revised that to say it's probably local to the Milky Way. Which is it, folks?

Apparently distance guesstimates are a bit subjective & hard to pin down?

Regards,

~Michael Gmirkin