Using the Spitzer Telescope NASA discovered a weird ring of material that circled around the magnetic debris of an exploded star.

The body of this dead star named "SGR 1900+14' is a magnetar. Magnetars are the cores of huge stars that exploded like others in a supernova but after death they are slowly pulsating X-rays and have very strong magnetic fields.

Researchers at NASA concluded that the ring was formed in 1998 when the magnetar exploded in a giant flare. The surface of the magnetar fissured, sending out a flare or blast of energy, that excavated a nearby cloud of dust, leaving an outer, dusty ring. This ring is oblong, with dimensions of about seven by three light-years. It appears to be flat, or two-dimensional but the scientists said they can't rule out the possibility of a three-dimensional shell.

Scientist are working now to discover if a star's mass decides if it becomes a magnetar when it reaches its end. It is known that stars above a certain mass will "go supernova," but they have no
classifications for a magnetar. The SGR 1900+14 is part of a young group of massive stars which are now being tested to determine the mass necessary to create the weird ring.

There are many differences between this specific ring and others formed in the Universe but the most important is that supernova remnants and rings around dead stars emit X-rays and radio waves. But the ring around SGR 1900+14 only glows at specific infrared wavelengths that the Spitzer telescope can see.

This phenomenon could be rare in our universe since it had not been seen before.