Chaos in the Grand Spiral Whirlpool Galaxy

Jan 18, 2021 | AAS, Daily Space, Galaxies

IMAGE: Magnetic field streamlines detected by SOFIA are shown over an image of the Whirlpool galaxy, M51, from NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope. For the first time, SOFIA’s infrared view shows that the magnetic fields in the outer arms do not follow the galaxy’s spiral shape and are instead distorted. The intense star formation activity in theses regions, shown in red, may be causing the chaos, along with the forces from neighboring galaxy, NGC 5195, tugging on one of the spiral arms. CREDIT: NASA, the SOFIA science team, A. Borlaff; NASA, ESA, S. Beckwith (STScI) and the Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA)

This story brings a new view on a galaxy that is an old favorite to many amateur astronomers: the Whirlpool Nebula or M51. While the image we’re showing may look like it was made with some new photoshop or Instagram filter, it is actually a combination of a Hubble image and magnetic field data taken by the SOFIA airborne observatory. Using its own style of polarized glasses, SOFIA is able to see how magnetic fields twist through the galaxy. To the surprise of the observers, and adding to the beauty of this image, these lines become more chaotic the farther one looks from the edge of the galaxy.

I kind of want a magnetic field filter for Instagram, but I’m not sure I can afford a camera like SOFIA’s.

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