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NASA captures 'magnetic fingerprint' of a galaxy across 24,000 light years

NASA captures 'magnetic fingerprint' of a galaxy across 24,000 light years

NGC 1068 or M77

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) on Tuesday captured the 'magneticfingerprint' of a galaxy across24,000 light-years.

The mesmerising image depicts magnetic fields in galaxy NGC 1068or M77,streamliningover visible light and X-ray composite image of the galaxy from theHubble Space Telescope,NuSTARor the Nuclear Spectroscopic Array, and theSloan Digital Sky Survey.

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NGC 1068 appears to have a complex inner structure.This galaxy is basically analogous to NGC 4736 (M94) showing a strikingly similar overall morphology.The extended outer disk shows signs of interaction and misalignment, probably a result of a recent bombardment.

The magnetic fields aligned along the entire length of the massive spiral arms,24,000 light-years across (0.8 kiloparsecs)implying that the gravitational forces that created the galaxy’s shape are also compressing its magnetic field.

This supports the leading theory of how the spiral arms are forced into their iconic shape known as “density wave theory.”

The Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy (SOFIA),studied the galaxy using far-infrared light (89 microns) to reveal facets of its magnetic fields than previous observations using visible and radio telescopes could not detect.