Astronomers have produced the most detailed map yet of the magnetic field within a part of the spiral arms called a galactic bone. The new map shows a mess of magnetic lines that are different from what is seen across the rest of the Milky Way.
The majority of the stars in the Milky Way are concentrated in massive, long arms that spin around the center of the galaxy. Humans have bones running through the center of their limbs. The bones produce their own magnetic field from the dense gas and dust within them.
The magnetic field of G47 is 200 light-years long and 5 light-years wide. The researchers used a project by NASA and the German Space Agency to do this. SOFIA is an airborne observatory, which consists of a Boeing 747SP aircraft that has been modified to carry a 106-inch-diameter (2.7 meters) reflecting telescope, aimed out of a massive door in the aircraft, up to an altitude of 45,000 feet (13,700 m). According to NASA, the telescope can operate above 99% of Earth's atmosphere.
Scientists have no idea why our galaxy is warped.
We are able to get so many independent measurements of the magnetic field direction across these bones, allowing us to really dive into the importance of the magnetic field in these massive filamentary clouds.
The researchers think that magnetic fields could be a factor in determining the rate at which stars form.
Magnetic fields can guide the flow of gas, shape the bones, and affect the quantity and size of the densest pockets of gas that will eventually collapse to form stars.
The map produced using SOFIA shows that the magnetic field within G47 is chaotic with no direction or pattern. The magnetic field was expected to be similar to the more uniform fields seen on a larger scale across the Milky Way's arms.
The magnetic field of G47 tends to be in the densest regions along the bone. The less dense regions may be feeding gas into the more dense regions where star formation is more likely to occur. The team believes that the magnetic field in these denser regions may be so strong that it may prevent star formation in some places by working against gravity, which is trying to collapse the gas into a new star.
The map produced using SOFIA shows that the magnetic field within G47 is chaotic with no direction or pattern. The magnetic field was expected to be similar to the more uniform fields seen on a larger scale across the Milky Way's arms.
The magnetic field of G47 tends to be in the densest regions along the bone. The less dense regions may be feeding gas into the more dense regions where star formation is more likely to occur. The team believes that the magnetic field in these denser regions may be so strong that it may prevent star formation in some places by working against gravity, which is trying to collapse the gas into a new star.
G47 is the first of 10 galactic bones that have been targeted for advanced mapping using SOFIA as part of the Filaments Extremely Long and Dark: a Magnetic Polarization Survey (FIELDMAPS) project. The goal of the FIELDMAPS project is to compare the magnetic fields of the galactic bones with computer simulations of spiral galaxies to see how they help shape the overall magnetic field of the Milky Way.
The study was published in The Astrophysical Journal Letters.
It was originally published on Live Science.
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