Sometimes we find things in space with names that sound like they’re straight of out the realm of science fiction. Like magnetars. Just the word alone invokes visions of some alien empress on a faraway planet: Magnetar, the Magnificent, of Planet Epsilon Indii III. Legions of her loyal subjects gather in a jewel-studded room to pay homage to her intelligence, her beauty, her awesome power: Magnetar, the Magnificent!!!

Well, I have no doubt that Edgar Rice Burroughs could have made a real tale out of Magnetar and her many adventures. But, in truth, there’s no such beautiful empress ruling over a faraway realm.

There is, however, the real magnetar, which is an object so strange that astronomers are still figuring out how they can exist. Magnetars are what remain after a star many, many times more massive than the Sun explodes. What’s left of the star collapses down to an extremely dense object called a neutron star (a star made entirely of neutrons, oddly enough). One of these babies is not much larger than an Earth mountain, but it has the mass of the Sun. A magnetar is a neutron star with a magnetic field hundreds of trillions of times more powerful than Earth’s. As the magnetar’s magnetic field decays over time, it spurs emissions of x-rays and gamma-rays, the most energetic radiation in the universe.

Nobody’s actually SEEN a magnetar so much as we’ve seen the emissions they give off. From those emissions we can figure out the strength and extent of the magnetic field that powers them. The XMM-Newton satellite, which is run by the European Space Agency, has detected powerful explosions emanating from just beneath the surface of the magnetar (shown in the artist’s conception up top). For several years astronomers followed the explosive history of one magnetar, called XTE J1810-197, and recorded changes in the energetic x-rays being emitted by this object. The astronomers made some computer models and have figured out that the outbursts are coming from a tiny island of magnetic activity just below the surface of the star. This island’s own magnetic field is six hundred million million times that of Earth’s. With all due respect to our fictional Empress Magnetar, this little magnetic spot in a distant neutron star is ‘way more powerful than the mightiest ruler (real or fictional). You can read more details about the magnetar at ESA.

People Have Them

The other night we were driving back from a family party and had the privilege of watching the late rise of a waning gibbous Moon. It was gorgeous, luminous and looked mysterious and awe-inspiring hovering over the spans of the Tappan Zee bridge in New York State. As is my usual practice, I stared at it for awhile, just taking in the “Moon”-ness of it all; the three-dimensionality of the world next door to Earth. It’s a wonderful thing to watch the Moon and think about all the people who have studied it, the handful of men who have visited it, and the many who will visit it in the future.

We see beautiful moonrises and full moons and appreciate moonlight because the Moon is bathed in sunlight, same as Earth is. The sunlight is made up of photons, packets of energy that are given off by the Sun as a result of nuclear reactions deep inside. It’s a process that has been going on since the Sun and planets formed more than 4.5 billion years ago. Granted, the reflected light isn’t as intense as the light straight from the Sun. But, even though a full moon is 500,000 times fainter than the Sun, moonlight is still reflected sunlight.

I was amused to read today that some guy in Arizona is channeling moonlight and reflecting it onto people, who then claim to have been healed of asthma and cancer, and had their depression lifted. He claims that the different colors in the light will activate parts of the body and help them heal. There’s no scientific evidence for this claim, but I do suspect that there’s a psychological connection that this guy is deliberately claiming as a real, physical effect. I’d like to see some scientific proof.

Because us human folk have active imaginations, we often see things in the Moon that really aren’t there, such as the patterns of light and dark on the surface that we often call “the Man in the Moon” or “the rabbit in the Moon.” There are lots of old folk tales about how moonlight affects people, usually as a calming influence or, paradoxically, as a cause of mental illness or derangement.

It’s much more likely that the folks who are “bathing in moonlight” are confusing the feelings of awe and inspiration and other emotional reactions that the Moon elicits with actual physical reactions. Entirely understandable. But, it’s not medicine and it’s not science. It’s metaphysical. And, it’s not the Moon’s fault that humans have a psychological capacity for things mysterious and magical. The Moon will sit there and cheerfully reflect sunlight from now until the end of the solar system and it’ll still be sunlight (reflected). It only becomes magical, metaphysical, or mysterious when humans (and their imaginations and emotions) get into the act.

What’s loony about this idea of moonlight curing diseases? The fact that people are paying money to stand in the way of some moonlight when most of us can do it for free on any moonlit night.

So, here’s a challenge for you: look at StarDate’s Calendar of the Moon’s phases and figure out a time when you can go stand in some moonlight. Then, go out and do it! Take along a pair of binoculars (or a telescope, if you have one) and check out the lunar craters. You’ll enjoy the moonlight and get to do a little lunar exploration, all in one go. And, the feeling of accomplishment you’ll have will be all your own, not caused by the supposed “mysterious” qualities of reflected sunlight.