Mysterious structures in the sky that have baffled astronomers for decades may now have an explanation. A study claims Earth is surrounded by giant magnetic tunnels. Like what?
The North Polar Spur and Fan Region, on opposite sides of the sky, are likely connected by a vast system of magnetic filaments. This system of magnetic filaments forms a tunnel-like structure that surrounds the Solar System and many nearby stars.
"If we looked up at the sky, we would see these tunnel-like structures in almost every direction we looked, if we had eyes that could see radio light," said astronomer Jennifer West of the University of Toronto in Canada. (18/10/2021).
Scientists have known about the two structures since the 1960s, but they are both elusive. That's because it's very difficult to know exactly how far away they are. The distance may range from hundreds to thousands of light years.
No analysis has ever linked the two structures together. Meanwhile, West and his colleagues were now able to show that the two regions, and the prominent radio ring in the space between them, could be linked, thus solving many of the puzzling problems associated with the two.
Comparison with real tunnels showing orientation. (Left: Pixabay/wal_172619/J. West; Right: Dominion Radio Astrophysical Observatory/Villa Elisa Telescope/ESA/Planck Collaboration/Stellarium/J. West)
"Several years ago, one of our co-authors, Tom Landecker, told me about a paper from 1965, a time when radio astronomy began to be widely studied. Based on the raw data currently available, the authors speculated that this polarized radio signal could emerges from our view of the galaxy's Local Arm, from within it," explained West.
"The paper inspired me to develop this idea and relate our model to the much better data that our current telescopes provide."
Using modeling and simulation, the researchers discovered what it would look like if the two structures were connected by magnetic filaments. From this, the team was able to determine that the most likely distance for the structure from the Solar System is about 350 light-years, consistent with some of the closer estimates. The entire length of the tunnel modeled by West and his team is about 1,000 light years.
More research is needed to confirm the previous findings, then to model the structure in more detail. But at the very least, this study is hoped to help solve a bigger mystery, namely the formation and evolution of magnetic fields in galaxies, and how these magnetic fields are maintained.
