The Magnetar of Westerlund 1 - Artist's impression

Video about the magnetar (a neutron star with huge magnetic power) located in the star cluster Westerlund 1, which is located 16 000 light-years away in the southern constellation of Ara (the Altar). According to the European Southern Observatory (ESO) Westerlund 1 is one of the closest super star clusters known that contains hundreds of very massive stars, some shining with a brilliance of almost one million suns, and some of them having a diameter equal to two thousand times the diameter of the Sun, or as large as the orbit of Saturn. All images released by ESO, under an Attribution-Unported 3.0 Creative Commons License. Music by Butterfly Tea, with the song "Desperate House Guitar" from the album "Land of Legend", released under an Attribution, Non-commercial, Share-alike, 3.0 Creative Commons License.

Category:

Science & Technology

Tags:

• astronomy
• neutron
• star
• magnetar
• Westerlund
• Altar
• constellation
• ESO