How Does Our Milky Way Galaxy Get its Spiral Form?
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How does our Milky Way galaxy get its spiral form?
A question that has long puzzled scientists is how our Milky Way galaxy which has an elegant spiral shape with long arms, took this form.
Universities Space Research Association today announced that new observations of another galaxy are shedding light on how spiral-shaped galaxies like our own get their iconic shape.
According to research from the Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy (SOFIA), magnetic fields play a strong role in shaping these galaxies. "Magnetic fields are invisible, but they may influence the evolution of a galaxy," said Dr. Enrique Lopez-Rodriguez, a Universities Space Research Association scientist at the SOFIA Science Center at NASA's Ames Research Center in California's Silicon Valley. "We have a pretty good understanding of how gravity affects galactic structures, but we're just starting to learn the role magnetic fields play."
Magnetic fields in the spiral galaxy are aligned with the spiral arms across the entire galaxy-more than 24,000 light years across. The magnetic field alignment with the star formation implies that the gravitational forces that created the galaxy's spiral shape is also compressing the magnetic field. The alignment supports the leading theory of how the arms are forced into their spiral shape known as "density wave theory."
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