Mysterious discovery in our galaxy broke theories and challenged scientists

An international team of scientists, using data from the Hubble Space Telescope, has discovered an unusual magnetar SGR 0501+4516. This super-dense stellar remnant is racing through the Milky Way at an unexpectedly high speed and is not associated with any known supernova remnant. The research is published in the journal Astronomy & Astrophysics.

Typically, magnetars form as a result of a massive star explosion - a supernova. However, the trajectory of SGR 0501+4516, determined using the Hubble telescope and the Gaia satellite, does not indicate this type of origin.

Scientists propose two possible hypotheses: either the magnetar formed after the merger of two neutron stars, or it resulted from the collapse of a white dwarf in a binary system. In the latter case, the white dwarf could have absorbed too much material from its companion star and, bypassing the supernova stage, transformed into a magnetar. This was explained by one of the study's authors, Andrew Levan from Radboud University (Netherlands).

This discovery is important from another perspective as well - it may shed light on the origin of mysterious fast radio bursts, powerful and brief signals from space. Magnetars formed in unusual ways could explain such bursts in old stellar clusters where massive stars are no longer found.