Can be viewed in the pulsar zoo

Space News

Thursday, December 29, 2011 – Astronomers once believed that stars with a mass over 25 times that of our own sun would eventually become black holes. Astronomers are presently reassessing this belief in light of new evidence suggesting magnetars with a mass as much as 40 times that of our sun exist amidst the pulsar zoo. Magnetars are neutron stars with magnetic fields a million billion times as powerful as the one surrounding Earth. Presently astronomers have discovered about 16 stellar bodies they believe to be magnetars.

Astronomers of The Open University in the United Kingdom recently discovered a stellar body they believe to be a magnetar, they have designed CXO J164710.2-455216, while studying the closest super-star cluster to Earth Westerlund 1. Taking a closer look at a binary star system in Westerlund 1. Astronomers determined the stellar object designed as CXO J164710.2-455216 must have once had a stellar mass at least 40 times that of our own sun. This news is currently causing astronomers to rethink present theories on the formation of black holes. They're presently trying to determine the stellar mass a sun needs to collapse to form a black hole.