Photo: NASA/JPL-CALTECH/R. HURT (SSC/CALTECH) / copyright
Our solar system is encapsulated in a gigantic “magnetic tunnel” that unites two vast regions of our galaxy that seemed to be disconnected.
That is the conclusion of a recent study in the area of the magnetic fields of the cosmos, a feature of our universe about which there are still many unanswered questions.
This finding by a team from the University of Toronto may be useful to better understand how the magnetic fields of the universe work and how they affect the behavior and evolution of galaxies.
“This model has implications for the development of a holistic model of magnetic fields in galaxies”, write the authors of the study.
What did the discovery consist of and how can it help improve our understanding of the universe?
This image shows what polarized radio waves from the sky would look like. The lines show the orientation of the magnetic field of the regions of the Fan Region (left) and the North Polar Spur (right).
Connected fields
The investigation was centered on two gigantic structures of our Milky Way.
One is the North Polar Spur and the other is the Fan Region.
The North Polar Spur is a huge swath of hot gas that emits X-rays and radio waves.
For its part, the Fan Region is an area highly polarized , whose electric field opens in the form of a fan.
Both regions are visible by radio telescopes and, from Earth, they are located on opposite sides of space.
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Until now, these two structures had been studied individually, but work from the University of Toronto shows for the first time that they are connected by a “tunnel” within which our solar system is located.
“The magnetic fields do not they exist in isolation” , says Jennifer West, lead researcher on galaxy magnetism at the Dunlap Institute for Astronomy and Physics at the University of Toronto and lead author. of the studio.
“Everyone must connect with each other. So the next step is to better understand how this local magnetic field connects with both the larger-scale galactic magnetic field and the smaller-scale magnetic fields of our Sun and Earth.”
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The magnetic field of the galaxies
Each galaxy has a natural magnetic field, but it is weak, explains Christopher S. Bair, professor of physics at West Texas A&M University.
“The magnetic field of our galaxy is about 100 times weaker than the Earth’s magnetic field,” Bair writes on the blog Science Questions With Surprising Answers.
The magnetic field of a galaxy is created in a similar way to how the Earth’s magnetic field is created: through the dynamo effect.
The rotation of the galaxy causes the interstellar gas that is full of charged particles to move. In this way, the kinetic energy of the moving particles creates a magnetic field.
This magnetic field, in turn, acts on the charged particles, thereby amplifying the magnetic field.
Filaments
To discover that “tunnel,” West and his colleagues ran simulations of what space would look like from Earth if radio waves from the North Polar Spur and the Fan Region emit light.
Of In this way, they realized that both regions are connected by structures of magnetic filaments.
“If we could see the light of (the waves of) radio, we would see this glowing stuff that’s stretching across the sky in several different directions,” West told CBS.
West refers to a complex system of charged particles and magnetic filaments, which form a kind of tunnel that surrounds the solar system and some outer stars.
According to West’s calculations, that tunnel would have about 1.000 light years in extent .
Inside the tunnel
According to the authors of the research, their findings can be used to better understand other structures of filaments that are increasingly observed by modern radio telescopes.
“We still do not fully understand the origin and evolution of regular magnetic fields in galaxies and how these fields are maintained”, they write in their study.
“Imagine that we are sitting inside a tunnel… and the rest of the galaxy is outside that tunnel, and the rest of the universe is outside of that tunnel. But we’re in” , West told CBC.
“Because we are inside it, we have to look through it all the time. I think it’s a very important first step in understanding the larger universe,” concludes West.
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