"Starquake" reveals neutron star's magnetic field

Neutron stars can have powerful magnetic fields around them, resulting in the name 'magnetars'. These fields could in theory rip the star apart momentarily releasing the huge amounts of x-ray energy sometimes seen from these objects. A neutron star with a magnetic field 6000 trillion times that of the earth has recently been discovered in the constellation Sagittarius which has had some very large recent "quakes" that have been observed by the European Space Agency's XMM-Newton spacecraft.

See New Scientist.