{"data":{"id":2265,"lang":"en","title":"Magnetar X-Rays May Confirm Heisenberg's 90-Year-Old Prediction About Empty Space","summary":"Astronomers studying magnetar 1E 1547.0-5408 with NASA's IXPE satellite may have detected vacuum birefringence, a quantum effect Heisenberg predicted in the 1930s.","category":"science","category_label":"Science","published_at":"2026-08-27T18:01:34Z","updated_at":"2026-08-27T18:01:34Z","url":"https://techtools.cz/tools/news/article/2265-magnetar-x-rays-may-confirm-heisenberg-s-90-year-old-prediction-about-empty","api_url":"https://techtools.cz/news-api/v1/articles/2265?lang=en","markdown_url":"https://techtools.cz/news-api/v1/articles/2265.md?lang=en","image_url":"https://www.sciencedaily.com/images/1920/magnetar-1e-15470-5408.webp","word_count":175,"reading_time_minutes":1,"sources":[{"url":"https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2026/08/260826055445.htm","domain":"sciencedaily.com"},{"url":"https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-026-10859-z","domain":"nature.com"}],"translation":{"lang":"cs","id":2338,"title":"Rentgenové záření magnetaru možná potvrzuje 90 let starou Heisenbergovu předpověď o prázdném prostoru","url":"https://techtools.cz/tools/news/clanek/2338-rentgenove-zareni-magnetaru-mozna-potvrzuje-90-let-starou-heisenbergovu","api_url":"https://techtools.cz/news-api/v1/articles/2338?lang=cs"},"content":"Astronomers say they may have caught \"empty\" space bending light, confirming a quantum effect predicted by Werner Heisenberg nearly 90 years ago. The finding centers on vacuum birefringence — the idea that a vacuum isn't truly empty but full of virtual particles that briefly pop in and out of existence, subtly distorting light that passes through a strong enough magnetic field.\n\nLed by Rachael E. Stewart of George Washington University with Dr. Marcus Lower of Swinburne University of Technology, the team studied magnetar 1E 1547.0-5408 using NASA's IXPE X-ray polarimetry satellite. Testing the effect requires a magnetic field \"over 100 million times stronger than any we've ever made on Earth,\" Lower said — a strength only magnetars, the most magnetic objects known, can supply. The magnetar's X-rays showed extremely high polarization locked to its magnetic field, matching what vacuum birefringence would predict.\n\nThe results were published in Nature. If confirmed by follow-up observations, it would be one of the first direct astrophysical detections of a quantum electrodynamics effect that has never been reproduced in an Earth laboratory."}}