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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."

27 of 41 comments (clear)

  1. Slashdotted already?!? by bratloaf · · Score: 1

    Looks like the slashdot effect is in full force already...

    1. Re:Slashdotted already?!? by Stargoat · · Score: 4, Funny

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

      --
      Hoist Number One and Number Six.
    2. Re:Slashdotted already?!? by forkfail · · Score: 1

      It's actually Homegalaxy Security, making sure you don't know where they store all the magnets....

      --
      Check your premises.
    3. Re:Slashdotted already?!? by GameboyRMH · · Score: 2

      They probably have the ICP on a watchlist.

      --
      "When information is power, privacy is freedom" - Jah-Wren Ryel
  2. Oblig. by fuzzyfuzzyfungus · · Score: 3, Funny

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

    1. Re:Oblig. by rubycodez · · Score: 1

      Fucking Moving Charges of the Galaxy, How Do They Work?

      The origin and causes of galactic magnetic fields (or, the moving charges that cause them) is unknown and there are competing theories. One is that it is a residual property frozen in matter originating in the big bang.

    2. Re:Oblig. by GameboyRMH · · Score: 1

      Aw crap made the infamous L vs. N mistake...that's what happens when you're laughing too hard.

      --
      "When information is power, privacy is freedom" - Jah-Wren Ryel
    3. Re:Oblig. by matrim99 · · Score: 1

      Rainbows, too.
      Miracles

      --
      Right. No, your other right. No, the other other right.
    4. Re:Oblig. by GameboyRMH · · Score: 1

      Yeah yeah, I made a mistake. Rap battle instincts took over and chose the word that rhymed better.

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      "When information is power, privacy is freedom" - Jah-Wren Ryel
    5. Re:Oblig. by forkfail · · Score: 4, Funny

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

      --
      Check your premises.
    6. Re:Oblig. by iggymanz · · Score: 1

      The origin of the magnetic field of the Milky Way has been discovered. It is amazingly a very recent phenomenon that has arisen in the last fifteen years, due to geeks taking apart broken hard drives and separating their very powerful rare earth magnet pairs.

    7. Re:Oblig. by Hillgiant · · Score: 1

      What's a astronogist?

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      -
    8. Re:Oblig. by iggymanz · · Score: 1

      you didn't listen closely enough. he said you'd get screwed. the U.S. government has been doing that to you for decades.

    9. Re:Oblig. by RivenAleem · · Score: 1

      Why are the elephants on their backs?

  3. Google cache link by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative

    Google Cache Link

    Shouldn't /. automatically append a cache link to every submitted link?

    1. Re:Google cache link by Baloroth · · Score: 1

      Now where would be the fun in that?

      --
      "None can love freedom heartily, but good men; the rest love not freedom, but license." --John Milton
    2. Re:Google cache link by skids · · Score: 1

      Agreed. A wayback machine link would, however, be fun.

    3. Re:Google cache link by Pope · · Score: 1

      No, that'd just break the Wayback Machine.

      --
      It doesn't mean much now, it's built for the future.
  4. Re:Slashdotted already?!? FTFY by bigredradio · · Score: 4, Informative

    Here is another site we can try to destroy with the power of the force.

    http://www.mpa-garching.mpg.de/mpa/institute/news_archives/news1112_fara/news1112_fara-en-print.html

  5. Re:D@mn, no wonder it stinks... by cyberchondriac · · Score: 2

    My thoughts exactly. Maybe it's caused by the Great A'Tuin and those 4 elephants.

    --

    Look back up at my post, now look back down, you're on the Internet. Now look back up. I'm a signature.
  6. <Electric Universe Rant Placeholder> by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    <Tangential tie-in due to reference to cosmic magnetic fields. Breathless, incoherent pseudoscience with suggestion of a conspiracy in mainstream physics to suppress this enlightened perspective. Also, TimeCube.>

  7. What would be nice... by jd · · Score: 4, Interesting

    ...would be a magnetic map superimposed on an inverse map of known stellar objects where "brightness" is the estimated mass calibrated such that stars that behave as we'd expect them to will show up as black (or near to it). (ie: calculate what you'd hypothesize the magnetic fields "should" be if all models are correct, then look at the difference between what you see and what you expect to see.)

    In other words, what doesn't match up? Maps are wonderful things, but in science you really don't care too much about the knowns. The unknowns are much more fun. Knowing where there are magnetic fields where there's no identifiable source, where the magnetic field for stars are unexpectedly strong or unexpectedly weak - that's where it gets really interesting. You can do a lot where data doesn't match the hypothesis. There's a lot less you can do when they do match and there's absolutely nothing you can do if you don't make any predictions at all.

    --
    It's a small world and it smells funny; I'd buy another if it wasn't for the money; Take back what I paid (SoM)
  8. Migration by sci-ku · · Score: 2

    This will dramatically improve the results for my interstellar Monarch butterfly tracking project that I recently launched.

    1) Collect a bunch of butterflies
    2) Make them little space suits
    3) Improve lifespan by several orders of magnitude
    4) Map galaxy's magnetic fields [CHECK]
    5) ???

    1. Re:Migration by TapeCutter · · Score: 3, Funny

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

      --
      And did you exchange a walk on part in the war for a lead role in a cage? - Pink Floyd.
  9. I wonder... by vikingpower · · Score: 1

    ... how Information Field Theory, or IFT, could be applied to computer science ? Or to the totally clueless management above my current project ?

    --
    Religous speak to God. Insane are spoken to by God. When all shut up, one can finally hear Shostakovich in peace
  10. So big of a galaxy... by c0lo · · Score: 2

    ... and no magnetic monopoles yet?

    --
    Questions raise, answers kill. Raise questions to stay alive.