Astronomers have managed to measure the strongest magnetic field ever found in the universe. The new holder of the record was a neutron star with a surface magnetic field of over 1.6 billion Tesla. The previous record was measured in 2020 and was found as 1 billion Tesla.
The strongest magnetic field in the universe
A binary star system known as Swift J0243.6+6124, which has the strongest magnetic field in the universe measured at 1.6 billion Tesla, is located about 22,000 light-years from Earth. The Insight-HXMT team set the new record by discovering a cyclotron absorption line.
In a statement: “Insight-HXMT made detailed broadband observations of the explosion of Swift J0243.6+6124, the first ultra-bright X-ray pulsar of the Milky Way, and clearly discovered the cyclotron absorption line. This line is 1.6 billion It revealed energy of up to 146 keV (with detection significance of about 10 times the standard deviation), corresponding to a surface magnetic field of more than tesla. This is not only the strongest magnetic field ever directly measured in the universe, but also an ultra-bright X- It is the first detection of an electron cyclotron absorption line at the beam source, thus enabling direct measurement of the surface magnetic field of the neutron star.” statements were included.
In terms of understanding how big the new record is, a fridge magnet is about 0.001 Tesla, while the more powerful MRI machines are around 3 Tesla. While Swift J0243.6+6124 is the strongest magnetic field ever measured, researchers estimate that another neutron star has a 10 billion Tesla magnetic field.
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