Chandra Release - May 23, 2013

Visual Description: SGR 0418+5729

An image and an artist’s illustration of a magnetar named SGR 0418+5729, which can generate large blasts of X-rays in the universe, are shown in a two-panel graphic. The image on the left features astronomical data on the left with an orange, purple and blue color scheme, and an artist’s illustration on the right with an orange, red and mint color scheme.  The X-ray, optical and infrared image of SGR 0418+5729 reveals a patch of sky with a number of bright multicolored dots of light. Data from NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory of SGR 0418 is shown as a pink source in the middle. Optical data from the William Herschel telescope and infrared data from NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope are shown in red, green and blue.  The artist's impression shows a close-up view of SGR 0418, a mint colored ball cutout to show its turbulent red-orange interior, and with white lines arcing around it. This illustration highlights the weak surface magnetic field of the magnetar, and the relatively strong, wound-up magnetic field lurking in the hotter interior of the star. The X-ray emission seen with Chandra comes from a small hot spot, not shown in the illustration. At the end of the outburst this spot has a radius of only about 160 meters, compared with a radius for the whole star of about 12 km.