Starship Asterisk*

A compilation of scientific results from The Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy, SOFIA, reveal new clues to how stars form and galaxies evolve, and closer to understanding the environment of Europa and its subsurface ocean. The airborne observatory carries a suite of instruments, each sensitive to different properties of infrared light, that gives astronomers insights into the flow of matter in galaxies.

“Much of the light in the universe is emitted as infrared light that does not reach Earth’s surface,” said Bill Reach, chief science advisor at the University Space Research Association’s SOFIA Science Center. “Infrared observations from SOFIA, which flies above most of the atmosphere, let us study what’s happening deep inside cosmic clouds, analyze celestial magnetic fields and investigate the chemical universe in ways that are not possible with visible light.”

Unlike space-based telescopes, SOFIA’s instruments can be exchanged, serviced or upgraded to harness new technologies. Its newest instrument, called the High-resolution Airborne Wideband Camera-Plus, or HAWC+, enables studies of celestial magnetic fields with ground-breaking precision.

“How magnetic fields affect the process of star formation has not been well understood, though it has long been suspected that they play an important role,” said David Chuss, professor of physics at Villanova University in Pennsylvania. “With SOFIA’s HAWC+ instrument, we can now begin to understand how these fields influence the dynamics of regions where gas and dust are collapsing to produce new stars." ...

Boomer12k wrote: ↑Wed Feb 27, 2019 8:42 am Maybe so many stars forming in one area create magnetic fields? Stars have magnetic fields... many, many stars might magnetize other things as they form?

I wonder what effect if any it would have on any objects passing through the area....

puzzled wrote: ↑Wed Feb 27, 2019 6:28 pm To what extent, if any, could magnetism account for the apparent effects of 'dark matter' in galactic motion?

Chris Peterson wrote: ↑Wed Feb 27, 2019 3:10 pm

Boomer12k wrote: ↑Wed Feb 27, 2019 8:42 am Maybe so many stars forming in one area create magnetic fields? Stars have magnetic fields... many, many stars might magnetize other things as they form?

It is a chicken-and-egg kind of thing. Are the stars forming because of magnetic fields, or are the magnetic fields the product of stars? We're seeing feedback processes. Electric currents produce magnetic fields produce electric currents. Mass produces gravity which influences mass.

I wonder what effect if any it would have on any objects passing through the area....

None... unless you're talking about objects that are the size of dust. Even in regions like this, almost everything is weak and tenuous- weak fields, hard vacuums, low gravity.