A soft gamma repeater (SGR) is an astronomical object which emits large bursts of gamma-rays and X-rays at irregular intervals.
As a number of receivers at different locations in the Solar System[3] saw the burst at slightly different times, its direction could be determined, and it was shown to originate from near a supernova remnant in the Large Magellanic Cloud.
The photons were less energetic in the soft gamma-ray and hard X-ray range, and repeated bursts came from the same region.
The period had increased by 0.008 seconds since 1993, and she calculated that this would be explained by a magnetar with a magnetic-field strength of 8×1010 teslas (8×1014 gauss).
Known soft gamma repeaters include:[4] The numbers give the position in the sky, for example, SGR 0525-66 has a right ascension of 5h25m and a declination of −66°.