"It's a very large magnetic field strength for a galaxy by any standard," confirmed astronomer and galactic magnetism researcher Ellen Zweibel of the University of Wisconsin-Madison. That said, the discovery creates a conundrum, said Zweibel. Current galactic evolution theory predicts that galaxies should start with weak fields, grow stars and structure, and gradually get stronger magnetic fields thereafter. So finding one that starts life strong is a little hard to explain. One possibility is that DLA-3C286 is not one galaxy but two caught in the act of colliding, said Wolfe. When galaxies collide their gases mix in ways that can generate much stronger magnetic fields -- for a short time. Unfortunately, said Wolfe, the chance of catching galaxies in the act of colliding is about one in 100. So either his team got very lucky, or something else is going on. To find out, Wolfe is working on getting some observing time on another telescope to look at a wispy arm of material coming off DLA-3C286. It might contain clues to what is happening there. Related Links: |
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