Galactic Merger Warps Magnetic Fields
Retrieved on:
Thursday, April 8, 2021
Now, for the first time, scientists have mapped out the invisible magnetic fields pulsing through Centaurus A using infrared light.
Key Points:
- Now, for the first time, scientists have mapped out the invisible magnetic fields pulsing through Centaurus A using infrared light.
- As the galactic collision triggered a burst of star formation and reshaped the original spiral galaxy, those effects, combined withgravitational forces, distorted the smaller-scale magnetic fields, twisting them and amplifying them.
- But researchers weren't sure what would happen to the magnetic fields after a merger in a galaxy with an active black hole at its core.
- "We plan to spend more time focusing our analysis only on the magnetic fields around the central black hole."