Astronomy Picture of the Day -- Our Galaxy's Magnetic Field from Planck

NASA ^ | January 27, 2015 | (see photo credit)

[SunkenCiv]

Explanation: What does the magnetic field of our Galaxy look like? It has long been known that a modest magnetic field pervades our Milky Way Galaxy because it is seen to align small dust grains that scatter background light. Only recently, however, has the Sun-orbiting Planck satellite made a high-resolution map of this field. Color coded, the 30-degree wide map confirms, among other things, that the Galaxy's interstellar magnetism is strongest in the central disk. The rotation of charged gas around the Galactic center creates this magnetism, and it is hypothesized that viewed from the top, the Milky Way's magnetic field would appear as a spiral swirling out from the center. What caused many of the details in this and similar Planck maps -- and how magnetism in general affected our Galaxy's evolution -- will likely remain topics of research for years to come.

[SunkenCiv]

[Credit and Copyright: ESA/Planck; Acknowledgement: M.-A. Miville-Deschenes, CNRS - IAS, U. Paris-XI]

[SunkenCiv]

2015 APoD Calendar

The Big One

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[cripplecreek]

Van Gogh

[Moonman62]

and how magnetism in general affected our Galaxy's evolution

It does appear that randomness and evolution are part of God's design.

[Moonman62]

I wonder if they used those colors to make it look like Van Gogh.

[mikrofon]

More like Van Allen ;)

[Conan the Librarian]

No, they used it to make it look like my Tie...which is a Van Gogh.

:D

[jyro]

I bet a deep space view of the universe magnetic field would be cool!

[buckalfa]

Looks like my EKG right after suffering an ascending aortic aneurysm. Kind of psychedelic yet beautiful in that there was still a heart rhythm.