The center of our Galaxy hosts a supermassive black hole , Sagittarius ( Sgr ) A ^ { * } .
Young , massive stars within 0.5 pc of Sgr A ^ { * } are evidence of an episode of intense star formation near the black hole a few Myr ago , which might have left behind a young neutron star traveling deep into Sgr A ^ { * } ’ s gravitational potential .
On 2013 April 25 , a short X-ray burst was observed from the direction of the Galactic center .
Thanks to a series of observations with the Chandra and the Swift satellites , we pinpoint the associated magnetar at an angular distance of 2.4 \pm 0.3 arcsec from Sgr A ^ { * } , and refine the source spin period and its derivative ( P = 3.7635537 ( 2 ) s and \dot { P } = 6.61 ( 4 ) \times 10 ^ { -12 } s s ^ { -1 } ) , confirmed by quasi simultaneous radio observations performed with the Green Bank ( GBT ) and Parkes antennas , which also constrain a Dispersion Measure of DM = 1750 \pm 50 pc cm ^ { -3 } , the highest ever observed for a radio pulsar .
We have found that this X-ray source is a young magnetar at \approx 0.07–2 pc from Sgr A ^ { * } .
Simulations of its possible motion around Sgr A ^ { * } show that it is likely ( \sim 90 % probability ) in a bound orbit around the black hole .
The radiation front produced by the past activity from the magnetar passing through the molecular clouds surrounding the Galactic center region , might be responsible for a large fraction of the light echoes observed in the Fe fluorescence features .