Starship Asterisk*

Centaurus A's Warped Magnetic Fields

Explanation: When galaxies collide -- what happens to their magnetic fields? To help find out, NASA pointed SOFIA, its flying 747, at galactic neighbor Centaurus A to observe the emission of polarized dust -- which traces magnetic fields. Cen A's unusual shape results from the clash of two galaxies with jets powered by gas accreting onto a central supermassive black hole. In the resulting featured image, SOFIA-derived magnetic streamlines are superposed on ESO (visible: white), APEX (submillimeter: orange), Chandra (X-rays: blue), and Spitzer (infrared: red) images. The magnetic fields were found to be parallel to the dust lanes on the outskirts of the galaxy but distorted near the center. Gravitational forces near the black hole accelerate ions and enhance the magnetic field. In sum, the collision not only combined the galaxies’ masses -- but amplified their magnetic fields. These results provide new insights into how magnetic fields evolved in the early universe when mergers were more common.

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Seems to be the wrong image here, not clear where the "superposed" magnetic streamlines are.
An image connected to the title's (USRA) link may be the intended image.
https://newsroom.usra.edu/galactic-merg ... ic-fields/
Lots of extra lines on that one.


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WWW wrote: ↑Wed Apr 21, 2021 4:44 am Seems to be the wrong image here, not clear where the "superposed" magnetic streamlines are.
An image connected to the title's (USRA) link may be the intended image.
https://newsroom.usra.edu/galactic-merg ... ic-fields/
Lots of extra lines on that one.

APOD Robot wrote: ↑Wed Apr 21, 2021 4:05 am
... featured image ...

bystander wrote: ↑Wed Apr 21, 2021 5:09 am

WWW wrote: ↑Wed Apr 21, 2021 4:44 am Seems to be the wrong image here, not clear where the "superposed" magnetic streamlines are.
An image connected to the title's (USRA) link may be the intended image.
https://newsroom.usra.edu/galactic-merg ... ic-fields/
Lots of extra lines on that one.

APOD Robot wrote: ↑Wed Apr 21, 2021 4:05 am
... featured image ...

I think that the above image would have been a better choice for an APOD, in view of the fact that the caption talks about magnetic lines.

Ann

WWW wrote: ↑Wed Apr 21, 2021 4:44 am Seems to be the wrong image here, not clear where the "superposed" magnetic streamlines are.
An image connected to the title's (USRA) link may be the intended image.
https://newsroom.usra.edu/galactic-merg ... ic-fields/
Lots of extra lines on that one.

Yes, my bad. The correct image is now featured. Apologies!
- RJN

Really amazing that magnet6ic lines can stretch all across the galaxy
like that!

APOD new insights

Cute little critter!

Looks like a skull.

It would be interesting to see the same image reproduced at five year intervals to see if the magnetic lines are changing in any discernible manner.

stevestone wrote: ↑Fri Apr 23, 2021 11:09 pm It would be interesting to see the same image reproduced at five year intervals to see if the magnetic lines are changing in any discernible manner.

I think it would require an interval of thousands of years for there to be any detectable change.