Cassiopeia A Is Not Dying Peacefully. Is It A Magnetar?

"Spitzer (infrared telescope) came along and showed us this exploded star,  one of the most intensively studied objects in the sky, is still undergoing death throes before heading to its final grave."

- Oliver Krause, Ph.D., University of Arizona

April 22, 2006   Pasadena, California -  The Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena reported this week that NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope has made accidental and surprising infrared images of light echoes from a star that was supposed to have died 325 years ago in a supernova explosion. But the new infrared information indicates Cassiopeia has released "at least one burst of energy as recently as fifty years ago" from its cosmic grave 11,000 light-years from Earth.