Is empty space really empty? This magnetic star may finally solve a 90-year-old mystery

Empty space is not as empty as it looks.That is the takeaway of a new study examining signals from a dead star, offering what researchers say is the strongest evidence yet that extreme magnetic fields can alter the properties of a vacuum, causing seemingly empty space to act like a prism and changing how light travels through itThe findings, led by Rachael Stewart, a graduate student in physics at the George Washington University, confirm a prediction of a strange effect first proposed 90 years