September 24, 2008--After decades of dark hibernation, this mysterious celestial object stunned astronomers by emitting 40 bright flashes of visible light over a three-day period in June 2007.

The strange object, seen in an artist's interpretation, may be a missing link in the family of neutron stars.

The possible magnetar is a young neutron star in the Milky Way with a powerful magnetic field (seen as twisting lines) a billion billion times stronger than Earth's.

--Brian Handwerk