Space Daily August 30, 2026 • 12:38

Physicists predicted in 1936 that a powerful magnetic field could turn empty space into a kind of prism — and on August 5, 2026, observations of a magnetar with a field more than a trillion times Earth’s produced the strongest evidence yet that they were right. - Space Daily

IXPE and radio polarimetry of magnetar 1E 1547.0−5408 provide the strongest evidence yet for vacuum birefringence, while the conclusion still depends on atmosphere and geometry models.

About 13,000 light-years away, give or take the spread in astronomical distance estimates, a stellar remnant is turning once every 2.09 seconds. It is only about the size of a city, yet it carries mo… [+21741 chars]

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Physicists predicted in 1936 that a powerful magnetic field could turn empty space into a kind of prism — and on August 5, 2026, observations of a magnetar with a field more than a trillion times Earth’s produced the strongest evidence yet that they were right. - Space Daily

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