10-Feb-2006 17:30:04 UT

Double Star and Cluster observe first evidence of crustal

cracking
21 Sep 2005
On 27 December 2004, radiation from the biggest starquake on a neutron star ever recorded
reached Earth. Unique data obtained by Double Star TC-2 and Cluster satellites enabled a group
of European scientists to find the first observational evidence of cracks in the neutron star crust,
during the initial phase of the starquake. This result, published 16 June 2005 in the
Astrophysical Journal, dicriminates between current theories on the physical origin of such
massive starquakes.

Neutron stars, pulsars and magnetars

Millions of neutron stars populate our Milky Way galaxy. A neutron star is the remaining core of a massive
star, once it has exploded. Made almost entirely of neutrons (subatomic particles with no electric charge),
this stellar corpse concentrates more than the mass of our Sun within a sphere of ~20 km diameter. It is so
dense that a sugar cube of neutron star on Earth would weight as much as all of humanity!
Two other physical properties characterise a neutron star, their fast rotation (or spin) and their high
magnetic field. Astronomers have found different classes of neutron stars based on these properties. Some
of them are the fastest spinning stars in the Universe (up to hundreds of revolutions per second); named
pulsars (Image 1), as they generate regular pulses of electromagnetic radiation including radio, visible, Xray and gamma-ray wavelengths. These pulses are often compared to a spinning lighthouse beacon which
appears to flash on and off.

Image 1. The Crab pulsar in a

composite view from Hubble
(optical in blue) and Chandra (X-ray
in red). Credit: NASA/HST/ASU/J.
Hester et al., NASA/CXC/ASU/J.
Hester et al.

Image 2. Artistic impression of

cracks on a magnetar in the initial
phase of a starquake. Credit: NASA.

Another class of neutron stars is known as magnetars (Image 2), due to their ultra-high magnetic field.
Their magnetic field intensity is indeed about 100 gigaTesla (or 10 11 T), a thousand times more than an
ordinary neutron star. By comparison, the Earth's magnetic field is about 50 microTesla (510 -5 T). Most

media used for data storage can be erased if they are exposed to a magnetic field of milliTesla (10 -3 T)
intensity.
So far, a dozen of magnetars have been found. Four of them are also known as soft gamma repeaters, or
SGRs, because they sporadically release large bursts of low energy
(soft) gamma rays and (hard) X-rays, usually during short time
periods (~ 0.1 s).

Extreme starquake on 27 December 2004

On 27 December 2004, the radiation from an extremely powerful
explosion on the surface of SGR 1806-20 (the numbers indicate its
position in the sky) reached Earth and lasted more than 6 minutes.
During the first 200 ms, the amount of energy released was
equivalent to what our Sun radiates in 250 000 years. It is the
brightest event known to have impacted the Earth from an origin
outside our solar system.

Image 3. SGR 1806-20 location.

Credit: NASA.

SGR 1806-20 is located at around 50 000 light-years from Earth on the far side of our Milky Way galaxy, in
the direction of the Sagittarius constellation (Image 3). A similar blast within 10 light years would have
destroyed the ozone layer and be similar to a major nuclear blast. Fortunately, the closest known magnetar
is 13 000 light years away.

Missing link found by Double Star and Cluster

al., 2005].
On 27 June 2005, the Astrophysical Journal published a related study on SGR 1806-20, this time led by
Italian astronomer GianLuca Israel from INAF-Osservatorio Astronomico di Roma. His data analysis reveals
the presence of quasi-periodic oscillations (or modes) at the end of the 27 December 2004 event.
"These modes are likely to be associated with global seismic oscillations. In particular, the large crustal
fracturing inferred by us can easily excite toroidal modes with characteristic frequencies in the observed
range", commented Professor Schwartz in his 16 June paper.
Therefore, Double Star TC-2 and Cluster data have not only enabled to directly estimate crustal properties
of magnetars, they have also linked interior magnetic processes and their external consequences during
giant flares.
"Cluster and Double Star were designed to study the various boundary layers of the Earth's
magnetosphere, including the physics of magnetic reconnection. Such boundary layer physics has
application throughout the astrophysical plasma universe, and it is therefore appropriate that these
missions contribute in a more direct way to the study of magnetic reorganisation in an astrophysical object
outside the solar system", concluded Professor Schwartz.
This new result illustrates the complementarity of the Double Star and the Cluster missions. New results
from both missions will be discussed this week (19-23 September) at ESTEC during a five day symposium
gathering more than 200 researchers coming from Europe, USA, China and Japan.