Astronomers from new Mexico and the Netherlands got the image of the magnetic field of the galaxy NGC 4217. It lies 67 million light-years from us, refers to the spiral type and is turned sideways to us. Thanks to its magnetic field, which extends around the galaxy by 22.5 thousand light-years, looks even more spectacular, even if it’s not visible to the human eye.
To detect such fields is used for synchrotron radiation, which is generated by contact of cosmic rays and magnetic field around the galaxy. It is interesting to scientists because it allows to measure not only the strength of the magnetic field and the polarization of the waves – that is, to determine how they are oriented. Due to this, scientists found that the shape of the magnetic field of NGC 4217 – Phillips.
Further observations identified in the field structure of the galaxy the presence of two huge “superpoteri” that are characteristic of the places of the death and birth of stars. And in the field of NGC 4217 observed an enormous magnetic loop of unknown origin. The total field intensity is quite modest – 0.9 microgauss, against a 0.5 Gauss Earth.
The most controversy among the scholars is about the origin of magnetic fields in galaxies. The basic scheme is based on the presence of a conductive liquid, which converts kinetic energy into magnetic. The liquid environment of the Earth is its molten core, the Sun is plasma, but what replaces them across the galaxy? There is a version that can move matter cause the supernova explosions and the Coriolis force, and the compressible gas creates turbulence and the heterogeneity of the system.
Source — Astronomy & Astrophysics