SGR 1900+14 is a soft gamma repeater (SGR), located in the constellation of Aquila about 45,000 light-years away. It is assumed to be an example of an intensely magnetic star, known as a magnetar, but it could also be a super-magnetic quark star. It is thought to have formed after a fairly recent supernova explosion. After a long period of low emissions (significant bursts only in 1979 and 1993) it became active in MayAugust 1998, and a burst detected on August 27, 1998 was of sufficient power to force NEAR Shoemaker to shut down to prevent damage and to saturate instruments on BeppoSAX, WIND and RXTE. Read more
Spectral and timing studies of Suzaku ToO observations of two SGRs, 1900+14 and 1806-20, are presented. The X-ray quiescent emission spectra were well fitted by a two blackbody function or a blackbody plus a power law model. The non-thermal hard component discovered by INTEGRAL was detected by the PIN diodes and its spectrum was reproduced by the power law model reported by INTEGRAL. The XIS detected periodicity P = 5.1998±0.0002 s for SGR 1900+14 and P = 7.6022±0.0007 s for SGR 1806-20. The pulsed fraction was related to the burst activity for SGR 1900+14.
NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope has found a bizarre ring of material around the magnetic remains of a star that blasted to smithereens. The stellar corpse, called SGR 1900+14, belongs to a class of objects known as magnetars. These are the cores of massive stars that blew up in supernova explosions, but unlike other dead stars, they slowly pulsate with X-rays and have tremendously strong magnetic fields.