Starquake

   A massive earthquake on a magnetar. A magnetar is a type of star that is created when a large star, at least eight times larger than the Sun, goes supernova. The star's core must spin fast, at least 200 revolutions per second, immediately after going supernova.

   This fast rate of spin creates a magnetic field in the gas cloud around the star. These magnetic fields are hundreds of times stronger than any other magnetic fields. They are so strong that they occasionally create a starquake, which cracks the star's solid metal crust.

   These cracks release streams of charged particles and radiation from withing the magnetar.

   The Earth was hit by one of these streams for five minutes on August 27, 1998 at 2:22 AM Pacific time, from magnetar SGR 1900+14. The stream of X-rays and gamma radiation overloaded sensors on satellites and disrupting long range radio transmissions. Magnetars are very dense. On Earth, one teaspoon of their matter would weigh about 907,000,000 metric tons (1,000,000,000 tons). There are probably millions of dormant magnetars in the Milky Way Galaxy.