Magnetic Chaos Hidden Within the Whirlpool Galaxy

Magnetic field streamlines detected by SOFIA are shown over an image of the Whirlpool galaxy 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 these regions, shown in red, may be causing the chaos, along with the forces from the yellow neighboring galaxy tugging on one of the spiral arms.

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