Limerick

Magnetar This word, until now not often seen outside the specialist field of cosmology, has suddenly became a hot topic. Reports have recently appeared of a colossal burst of gamma rays which hit the Earth’s upper atmosphere on 27 August 1998. The pulse lasted about five minutes, ionised the atmosphere on the night side to levels normally seen in daytime, disrupted some radio traffic, sent detectors on several spacecraft off scale and caused one to shut down completely. What is astonishing...