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1 revisions for "A Cosmic Chirp: How a Strobing Supernova Revealed the Birth of the Universe's Most Powerful Magnet"

Astronomers have for the first time witnessed the birth of a magnetar — a hyper-magnetized neutron star — inside the superluminous supernova SN 2024afav, confirming a 16-year-old theory that these extreme objects power the brightest explosions in the universe. The discovery, published in Nature, identified a never-before-seen "chirp" pattern in the supernova's light caused by Einstein's general relativity, marking the first time relativistic effects have been needed to explain a supernova's behavior.