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I'm unable to reply to your latest comment and must leave presently so I will reply here. I feel the perspective you've taken downplays things a bit. The histo
by Vetch 5y ago
I'm unable to reply to your latest comment and must leave presently so I will reply here. I feel the perspective you've taken downplays things a bit.
The history of astronomy spans thousands of years, a high number of unusual observations will sure to have accumulated over time. But finding an unpredicted aspect of a previously unobserved class of objects is an exciting event carrying a relatively high amount of surprisal. The involved astronomers are clearly excited and being reserved with language is to be expected of formal papers. While not an astronomer, I find the resulting changes in observation patterns exciting to read about and look forward to learning about the unusual radiative properties of such magnetars.
- dekhn 5y agoLiterally the last 200 hundred years of astronomy have been a series of "surprisal" that ended up being "part of the ouevre" 10 years later. Magnetars are a fairly niche area, as are neutron star in general. Neutron stars are really surprising, actually, in the sense that their physics look like nothing we have on earth. We will probably be finding unexpected neutron stars and things like slow magnetars for quite some time.