Astronomers Create Detailed Map of Milky Way's Magnetic Fields Using Radio Telescope in Western Australia
Astronomers have produced a detailed map of the Milky Way's magnetic fields using a radio telescope in the Murchison region of remote Western Australia, more than 700km north of Perth. The map, described as the biggest of its kind, was led by Australia’s national science agency, CSIRO, in collaboration with the SKA Observatory.
Astronomers from CSIRO and the SKA Observatory studied how bright radio waves from nearly 4 million distant galaxies changed as they passed through the Milky Way’s magnetic fields. These changes serve as indicators of the strength and direction of the magnetic fields. According to gdelt, the team is building an atlas of these telltale signs using data from compact, faraway galaxies. CSIRO research scientist Tim Galvin confirmed this approach. The radio telescope used in the study generates data at a rate of 100 trillion bits per second. The cosmic map of magnetic fields may aid scientific understanding of a poorly understood force. The work was conducted in the Murchison region, where visual data from the Australian outback is being used to study the Milky Way's magnetic fields.
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