New All-Sky Map Shows the Magnetic Fields of the Milky Way

An anonymous reader writes "With a unique new all-sky map, scientists at MPA have made significant progress toward measuring the magnetic field structure of the Milky Way in unprecedented detail. Specifically, the map is of a quantity known as Faraday depth, which among other things, depends strongly on the magnetic fields along a particular line of sight. To produce the map, data were combined from more than 41,000 individual measurements using a novel image reconstruction technique. The work was a collaboration between scientists at the Max Planck Institute for Astrophysics (MPA), who are specialists in the new discipline of information field theory, and a large international team of radio astronomers. The new map not only reveals the structure of the galactic magnetic field on large scales, but also small-scale features that provide information about turbulence in the galactic gas."

Comments

Re:Slashdotted already?!?

[Stargoat]

The magnetic field structure of the galaxy pales in comparison to the power of the Slashdot Effect.

Oblig.

[fuzzyfuzzyfungus]

Fucking Magnetic Field Structures of the Galaxy; how do they work?

Re:Oblig.

[forkfail]

As the Turtle's shell rubs the fur on the elephants' backs, it builds up an electric charge, which results in a magnetic field.

Re:Migration

[TapeCutter]

I tried that but the little buggers flew to Mexico for the winter.