Astronomers are investigating an object in the Milky Way that is having an odd, strobe-light effect.
Astronomers now think this celestial enigma is a 'magnetar' located in our own Milky Way galaxy, about 15,000 light-years away in the area around the constellation of Vulpecula, the Fox. Magnetars are a type of young neutron stars. They boast a magnetic field that's a billion billion times stronger than Earth's. To put that in perspective for those of us with the financial crisis willies: A magnetar would wipe the information from all credit cards on Earth from a distance halfway to the Moon, explains Antonio de Ugarte Postigo, the study's co-author.
