ARTIST'S IMPRESSION OF A KILONOVA, BY A. SIMONNET
Neutron stars hold key to cosmic mysteries
The work of UM astrophysicist Dr. Samar Safi-Harb was featured in a major article in the October 2021 issue of the popular science magazine Astronomy.
The article explains:
Neutron stars aren’t just notable for the valuable elements they create, though. They’re also a dream come true for physicists. From their crushing gravity to the universe’s strongest magnetic fields, extremes of physics are the norm for neutron stars. And, unlike black holes, these exotic objects are observable.
“It’s hard to study black holes,” says Samar Safi-Harb, the Canada research chair in supernova remnant astrophysics at the University of Manitoba in Winnipeg, Canada. “With neutron stars, you can do a lot more. You can really probe the interior, there’s a surface you can study, and you can measure a lot of its properties.”
The article goes into detail about the various aspects of neutron stars, such as their creation in supernova explosions and variants such as magnetars, the strongest magnets in the universe.
The research by Safi-Harb has received worldwide attention several times before and featured in UM Today:
Astronomers catch a pulsar wind powered by magnetar outbursts
Research at the University of Manitoba is partially supported by funding from the Government of Canada Research Support Fund.