 A magnetar is a spinning neutron star with an intense magnetic field. Magnetic field strength is measured in units called Gauss. A refrigerator magnet is about 50 Gauss. MRIs use up to 70,000 Gauss. A magnetar's field strength is a thousand trillion Gauss. It's enough to tear atoms apart at a thousand kilometers away. Only around 1 in 10 neutron stars start out as magnetars. We do not yet know what makes their magnetic fields so strong. But it looks like they don't last long. They settle into normal neutron star status after around 10,000 years. On June 22, 2016, an instrument aboard NASA's SWIFT telescope captured the release of a short burst of X-rays from 1E1613, a star in the middle of the supernova remnant, RCW103, indicating that it may be a magnetar. Seeking to investigate further, astronomers had the Chandra X-ray Observatory and other telescopes follow up with observations of their own. They confirmed that 1E1613 has the properties of a magnetar, making it the 30th magnetar ever discovered.