Stephens, Ian W. and Myers, Philip C. and Zucker, Catherine and Jackson, James M. and Andersson, B.-G. and Smith, Rowan and Soam, Archana and Battersby, Cara and Sanhueza, Patricio and Hogge, Taylor and Smith, Howard A. and Novak, Giles and Sadavoy, Sarah and Pillai, Thushara G.S. and Li, Zhi-Yun and Looney, Leslie W. and Sugitani, Koji and Coudé, Simon and Guzmán, Andrés and Goodman, Alyssa and Kusune, Takayoshi and Santos, Fábio P. and Zuckerman, Leah and Encalada, Frankie (2022) The Magnetic Field in the Milky Way Filamentary Bone G47. The Astrophysical Journal Letters, 926 (1). L6. ISSN 2041-8205
![[thumbnail of Stephens_2022_ApJL_926_L6.pdf]](http://peerreview.go2articles.com/style/images/fileicons/text.png)
Stephens_2022_ApJL_926_L6.pdf - Published Version
Download (1MB)
Abstract
Star formation primarily occurs in filaments where magnetic fields are expected to be dynamically important. The largest and densest filaments trace the spiral structure within galaxies. Over a dozen of these dense (∼104 cm−3) and long (>10 pc) filaments have been found within the Milky Way, and they are often referred to as "bones." Until now, none of these bones has had its magnetic field resolved and mapped in its entirety. We introduce the SOFIA legacy project FIELDMAPS which has begun mapping ∼10 of these Milky Way bones using the HAWC+ instrument at 214 μm and 18farcs2 resolution. Here we present a first result from this survey on the ∼60 pc long bone G47. Contrary to some studies of dense filaments in the Galactic plane, we find that the magnetic field is often not perpendicular to the spine (i.e., the center line of the bone). Fields tend to be perpendicular in the densest areas of active star formation and more parallel or random in other areas. The average field is neither parallel nor perpendicular to the Galactic plane or the bone. The magnetic field strengths along the spine typically vary from ∼20 to ∼100 μG. Magnetic fields tend to be strong enough to suppress collapse along much of the bone, but for areas that are most active in star formation, the fields are notably less able to resist gravitational collapse.
Item Type: | Article |
---|---|
Subjects: | Middle Asian Archive > Physics and Astronomy |
Depositing User: | Managing Editor |
Date Deposited: | 29 Apr 2023 07:00 |
Last Modified: | 16 Jul 2025 03:49 |
URI: | http://peerreview.go2articles.com/id/eprint/380 |