Article, 2024
A magnetar giant flare in the nearby starburst galaxy M82
Nature,
ISSN
0028-0836,
1476-4687,
Volume 629,
8010,
Pages 58-61,
10.1038/s41586-024-07285-4
Contributors
Mereghetti, Sandro
0000-0003-3259-7801
(Corresponding author)
[1]
Rigoselli, Michela
[1]
Salvaterra, Ruben
0000-0002-9393-8078
[1]
Pacholski, Dominik Patryk
0009-0001-3911-9266
[1]
[2]
Rodi, James Craig
0000-0003-2126-5908
[3]
Gotz, Diego
[4]
Arrigoni, Edoardo
[1]
[5]
D'Avanzo, Paolo
0000-0001-7164-1508
[6]
Adami, Christophe
[7]
Bazzano, Angela
0000-0002-2017-4396
[3]
Bozzo, Enrico
0000-0002-8201-1525
[8]
[9]
Brivio, Riccardo
0009-0000-0564-7733
[6]
[10]
Campana, Sergio
[6]
Cappellaro, Enrico
0000-0001-5008-8619
[11]
Chenevez, Jéro Me
0000-0002-4397-8370
[12]
De Luise, Fiore
0000-0002-6570-8208
[13]
Ducci, Lorenzo
0000-0002-9989-538X
[8]
[14]
Esposito, Paolo
0000-0003-4849-5092
[1]
[15]
Ferrigno, Carlo
0000-0003-1429-1059
[6]
[8]
Ferro, Matteo
0009-0007-5708-7978
[6]
[10]
Israel, Gian Luca
0000-0001-5480-6438
[9]
Le Floc'H, Emeric
[4]
Martin-Carrillo, Antonio
0000-0001-5108-0627
[16]
Onori, Francesca
[13]
Rea, Nanda
0000-0003-2177-6388
[17]
[18]
Reguitti, Andrea
0000-0003-4254-2724
[6]
[11]
Savchenko, Volodymyr Fedorovych
0000-0001-6353-0808
[8]
[19]
Souami, Damya
0000-0003-4058-0815
[20]
Tartaglia, Leonardo
[13]
Thuillot, William
[21]
Tiengo, Andrea
0000-0002-6038-1090
[1]
[15]
Tomasella, Lina
0000-0002-3697-2616
[11]
Topinka, Martin
[22]
Turpin, Damien
[4]
Ubertini, Pietro
[3]
Affiliations
- [1]
Istituto di Astrofisica Spaziale e Fisica Cosmica di Milano
[NORA names:
Italy; Europe, EU; OECD];
- [2]
University of Milano-Bicocca
[NORA names:
Italy; Europe, EU; OECD];
- [3]
National Institute for Astrophysics
[NORA names:
Italy; Europe, EU; OECD];
- [4]
Université Paris Cité
[NORA names:
France; Europe, EU; OECD];
- [5]
University of Milan
[NORA names:
Italy; Europe, EU; OECD];
(... more)
- [6]
Brera Astronomical Observatory
[NORA names:
Italy; Europe, EU; OECD];
- [7]
Aix-Marseille Univ., CNRS, CNES, LAM, Marseille, France
[NORA names:
Miscellaneous; France; Europe, EU; OECD];
- [8]
University of Geneva
[NORA names:
Switzerland; Europe, Non-EU; OECD];
- [9]
Astronomical Observatory of Rome
[NORA names:
Italy; Europe, EU; OECD];
- [10]
University of Insubria
[NORA names:
Italy; Europe, EU; OECD];
- [11]
Osservatorio Astronomico di Padova
[NORA names:
Italy; Europe, EU; OECD];
- [12]
Technical University of Denmark
[NORA names:
DTU Technical University of Denmark;
University; Denmark; Europe, EU; Nordic; OECD];
- [13]
Collurania Teramo Observatory
[NORA names:
Italy; Europe, EU; OECD];
- [14]
Institut fuer Astronomie und Astrophysik Tuebingen, Tuebingen, Germany
[NORA names:
Germany; Europe, EU; OECD];
- [15]
Istituto Universitario di Studi Superiori di Pavia
[NORA names:
Italy; Europe, EU; OECD];
- [16]
University College Dublin
[NORA names:
Ireland; Europe, EU; OECD];
- [17]
Institut d'Estudis Espacials de Catalunya
[NORA names:
Spain; Europe, EU; OECD];
- [18]
Institute of Space Sciences
[NORA names:
Spain; Europe, EU; OECD];
- [19]
École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne
[NORA names:
Switzerland; Europe, Non-EU; OECD];
- [20]
Laboratory of Space Studies and Instrumentation in Astrophysics
[NORA names:
France; Europe, EU; OECD];
- [21]
PSL University
[NORA names:
France; Europe, EU; OECD];
- [22]
Osservatorio Astronomico di Cagliari
[NORA names:
Italy; Europe, EU; OECD]
(less)
Abstract
Magnetar giant flares are rare explosive events releasing up to 1047 erg in gamma rays in less than 1 second from young neutron stars with magnetic fields up to 1015−16 G (refs. 1,2). Only three such flares have been seen from magnetars in our Galaxy3,4 and in the Large Magellanic Cloud5 in roughly 50 years. This small sample can be enlarged by the discovery of extragalactic events, as for a fraction of a second giant flares reach luminosities above 1046 erg s−1, which makes them visible up to a few tens of megaparsecs. However, at these distances they are difficult to distinguish from short gamma-ray bursts (GRBs); much more distant and energetic (1050−53 erg) events, originating in compact binary mergers6. A few short GRBs have been proposed7–11, with different amounts of confidence, as candidate giant magnetar flares in nearby galaxies. Here we report observations of GRB 231115A, positionally coincident with the starburst galaxy M82 (ref. 12). Its spectral properties, along with the length of the burst, the limits on its X-ray and optical counterparts obtained within a few hours, and the lack of a gravitational wave signal, unambiguously qualify this burst as a giant flare from a magnetar in M82.
Keywords
M82,
X-ray,
burst,
confidence,
counterparts,
discovery,
distance,
events,
explosive events,
extragalactic events,
field,
flares,
fraction,
galaxies,
galaxy M82,
gamma,
gamma rays,
gamma-ray bursts,
giant flares,
gravitational wave signals,
lack,
length,
limitations,
luminosity,
magnetar flares,
magnetar giant flares,
magnetars,
magnetic field,
megaparsecs,
neutron stars,
observations,
optical counterparts,
properties,
rays,
samples,
signal,
spectral properties,
starburst,
starburst galaxy M82,
stars,
wave signals,
years,
young neutron stars
Funders
Data Provider: Digital Science