As the repeater narrowed down the options, Scholz took a stab at guessing the source: «Extragalactic magnetar» he wrote in his initial email, referring to a young neutron star with
an extremely powerful magnetic field.
New data from these powerful telescopes later confirmed that 1E 1613 has the properties of a magnetar — a type of neutron star with
an extremely powerful magnetic field — making it only the 30th known one.
«This emission comes from particles ejected at nearly the speed of light from the surface of the neutron star interacting with
the extremely powerful magnetic field,» said Kulkarni.