The solar system is surrounded by a magnetic ‘tunnel’, according to study

Research by an astronomer at the University of Toronto suggests that the solar system is surrounded by a magnetic tunnel that can be seen in radio waves.

Jennifer West, a research associate at the Dunlap Institute for Astronomy and Astrophysics, is presenting a scientific case that two bright structures seen on opposite sides of the sky, previously considered separate, are actually connected and made of rope-like filaments. .

The results of West’s research data have been published in the Astrophysical Journal.

“If we had to look up at the sky”West says in a statement, “We would see this tunnel-like structure in almost every direction we look, that is, if we had eyes that could see the light from the radio.”

Called “The north polar spur” and “The region of the fan”astronomers have known these two structures for decades, says West. But most scientific explanations have focused on them individually. West and his colleagues, by contrast, believe that

Composed of charged particles and a magnetic field, the structures are shaped like long strings and are located about 350 light-years away from us, and are about 1,000 light-years long.

“That’s the equivalent distance of traveling between Toronto and Vancouver two billion times.”, dice West.

West has been thinking about these features on and off for 15 years, since he first saw a radio sky map. More recently, he built a computer model that calculated what the radio sky would look like from Earth while varying the shape and location of the long strings. The model allowed West to “build” the structure around us and showed him what the sky would look like through our telescopes. It was this new perspective that

“A few years ago, one of our co-authors, Tom Landecker, told me about an article from 1965, from the early days of radio astronomy.”, dice West. “Based on the raw data available at this time, the authors [Mathewson y Milne], they speculated that these polarized radio signals could arise from our view of the Local Arm of the galaxy, from its interior ”.

“That document inspired me to develop this idea and link my model to the much better data that our telescopes provide us today.”

West uses the map of Earth as an example. The north pole is at the top and the equator is in the middle, unless you redraw the map from a different perspective. The same goes for the map of our galaxy. “Most astronomers look at a map with the galaxy’s north pole facing up and the galactic center in the middle,” explica West. “An important part that inspired this idea was remaking that map with a different point in the middle.”

says Bryan Gaensler, a Dunlap Institute professor and author of the publication. “When Jennifer first pitched this to me, I thought it was too ‘out of place’ to be a possible explanation. But he was finally able to convince me. Now, I’m excited to see how the rest of the astronomical community reacts. “

An expert in magnetism in galaxies and the interstellar medium, West looks forward to the most possible discoveries related to this research.

“Magnetic fields do not exist in isolation”, dice. “They all need to connect with each other. So the next step is to better understand how this local magnetic field connects to both the larger-scale galactic magnetic field and the smaller-scale magnetic fields of our sun and Earth. “

Meanwhile, West agrees that the new “tunnel” model not only brings new knowledge to the scientific community, but also an innovative concept for the rest of us. “I think it is incredible to imagine that these structuresevery time we look up at the night sky. “

Follow us on twitter: