A
recent collaborative effort has revealed new findings about our
galaxy’s magnetic field. Outflows of charged particles are shooting out
from the center of the Milky Way and covering half the galaxy. CSIRO’s
(Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization) 64-m
Park’s radio telescope has detected and mapped these “geysers”. They
move at supersonic speed and contain one million times more energy than a
supernova. Extending about 50,000 light-years from top to bottom, they
are half the Milky Way’s diameter in size!
Luckily, they are
pointed in a different direction from our solar system. At first,
astronomers were not sure if these outflows were the result of
quasar-like activity from our galaxy’s super-massive black hole, or from
star formation. These latest findings have shown that these galactic
geysers are produced by many different star generations forming and
exploding. By analyzing the energy content of these outflows, researchers concluded that the contributing star formations happened in rounds and not all at once.
Further analysis of this data and polarization properties of magnetic
fields can help to solve galactic mysteries. The outflow’s radiation was
found to contain a high degree of structure and this is important to
understanding how our galaxy generates and maintains its magnetic field.
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