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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."

12 of 41 comments (clear)

  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. Oblig. by fuzzyfuzzyfungus · · Score: 3, Funny

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

    1. 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.

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

    Google Cache Link

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

  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.

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    Look back up at my post, now look back down, you're on the Internet. Now look back up. I'm a signature.
  6. 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
  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.

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  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.

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      And did you exchange a walk on part in the war for a lead role in a cage? - Pink Floyd.
  9. So big of a galaxy... by c0lo · · Score: 2

    ... and no magnetic monopoles yet?

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