Scientists using NASA’s Imaging X-ray Polarimetry Explorer (IXPE) collected more than 140 hours of observations of the magnetar 1E 1547-5408 from March to April 2025. An artist’s concept dated August 5, 2026, provided by NASA and Pablo Garcia, depicts the magnetar. The observations may indicate that empty space behaves in a manner predicted by physicists for 90 years, a pattern that has not been directly observed before. Magnetars are neutron stars with magnetic fields estimated to be around a trillion times stronger than the strongest permanent magnets created on Earth.