scholarly journals A Wide Field λ90cm Image Around the Galactic Centre - Evidence for a Poloidal Magnetic Field

1990 ◽  
Vol 140 ◽  
pp. 375-376
Author(s):  
K. R. Anantharamaiah ◽  
A. Pedlar

A number of unique non-thermal filamentary structures, which are all roughly perpendicular to the galactic plane have been discovered in the vicinity of the Galactic centre (see Yusef-Zadeh 1989 and references there in). On the basis of their uniformity, polarization angles, rigidity, and pressure balance with the surrounding medium, it has been hypothesized that a strong polodial field of milligauss strength pervades the inner 50 pc of the Galaxy (Morris and Yusef-Zadeh 1989 and Morris in this volume). We present here a single wide-field image, at λ90cm, which shows all the filamentary structures in this region and show that these observations are consistent with the above hypothesis.

1992 ◽  
Vol 9 ◽  
pp. 81-86
Author(s):  
R. Wielebinski

AbstractMagnetic fields are present in every corner of the Universe. The Earth, the Sun and most of the planets are known to possess dipolar magnetic fields. In the Galaxy many individual objects like stars, pulsars, bipolar nebulae and supernova remnants are found to have associated magnetic fields. It seems that the rotation plays a significant role in the ability of a cosmic object to develop a magnetic field. The magnetic field of the Galaxy is observed to be oriented along the galactic plane as evidenced by both optical and radio polarization observations. Radio maps of the Galactic centre reveal poloidal magnetic fields as ‘wisps’ or ‘strings’ around Sagittarius A. Observations of nearby galaxies give us remarkable information about the large-scale magnetic fields in these building blocks of the Universe. Magnetic fields play an important role in the formation of jets of radio galaxies. Further out, in clusters of galaxies, definitive evidence has been given for the existence of intergalactic magnetic fields.


1967 ◽  
Vol 31 ◽  
pp. 239-251 ◽  
Author(s):  
F. J. Kerr

A review is given of information on the galactic-centre region obtained from recent observations of the 21-cm line from neutral hydrogen, the 18-cm group of OH lines, a hydrogen recombination line at 6 cm wavelength, and the continuum emission from ionized hydrogen.Both inward and outward motions are important in this region, in addition to rotation. Several types of observation indicate the presence of material in features inclined to the galactic plane. The relationship between the H and OH concentrations is not yet clear, but a rough picture of the central region can be proposed.


1981 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. 243-247 ◽  
Author(s):  
W. H. McCutcheon ◽  
B. J. Robinson ◽  
J. B. Whiteoak

Millimetre-wave emission from the CO molecule has proven to be an extremely useful probe of the cold, dense clouds of molecular hydrogen in the Galaxy. Previous studies of the large-scale distribution of CO in the galactic plane (Scoville and Solomon 1975; Burton et al. 1975; Bash and Peters 1976; Burton and Gordon 1978; Solomon et al. 1979b; Cohen et al. 1980) have all been of the northern hemisphere and primarily at longitudes 0° ≤ l ≥ 80°. These studies have revealed the striking characteristic that the CO, and by implication molecular hydrogen clouds, are concentrated in a ring extending from 4 to 8 kpc from the galactic centre. This is in sharp contrast to the atomic hydrogen distribution, which is fairly constant over the extended region from 4 to 13 kpc but correlates well with other Population I indicators.


Author(s):  
S. Karaali ◽  
S. Bilir ◽  
S. Ak ◽  
E. Yaz Gökçe ◽  
Ö. Önal ◽  
...  

AbstractWe investigated the space velocity components of 6 610 red clump (RC) stars in terms of vertical distance, Galactocentric radial distance and Galactic longitude. Stellar velocity vectors are corrected for differential rotation of the Galaxy which is taken into account using photometric distances of RC stars. The space velocity components estimated for the sample stars above and below the Galactic plane are compatible only for the space velocity component in the direction to the Galactic rotation of the thin disc stars. The space velocity component in the direction to the Galactic rotation (Vlsr) shows a smooth variation relative to the mean Galactocentric radial distance (Rm), while it attains its maximum at the Galactic plane. The space velocity components in the direction to the Galactic centre (Ulsr) and in the vertical direction (Wlsr) show almost flat distributions relative to Rm, with small changes in their trends at Rm ~ 7.5 kpc. Ulsr values estimated for the RC stars in quadrant 180° < l ⩽ 270° are larger than the ones in quadrants 0° < l ⩽ 90° and 270° < l ⩽ 360°. The smooth distribution of the space velocity dispersions reveals that the thin and thick discs are kinematically continuous components of the Galaxy. Based on the Wlsr space velocity components estimated in the quadrants 0° < l ⩽ 90° and 270° < l ⩽ 360°, in the inward direction relative to the Sun, we showed that RC stars above the Galactic plane move towards the North Galactic Pole, whereas those below the Galactic plane move in the opposite direction. In the case of quadrant 180° < l ⩽ 270°, their behaviour is different, i.e. the RC stars above and below the Galactic plane move towards the Galactic plane. We stated that the Galactic long bar is the probable origin of many, but not all, of the detected features.


1989 ◽  
Vol 136 ◽  
pp. 243-263 ◽  
Author(s):  
F. Yusef-Zadeh

Recent studies of the Galactic center environment have revealed a wealth of new thermal and nonthermal features with unusual characteristics. A system of nonthermal filamentary structures tracing magnetic field lines are found to extend over 200pc in the direction perpendicular to the Galactic plane. Ionized structures, like nonthermal features, appear filamentary and show forbidden velocity fields in the sense of Galactic rotation and large line widths. Faraday rotation characteristics and the flat spectral index distributions of the nonthermal filaments suggest a mixture of thermal and nonthermal gas. Furthermore, the relative spatial distributions of the magnetic structures with respect to those of the ionized and molecular gas suggest a physical interaction between these two systems. In spite of numerous questions concerning the origin of the large-scale organized magnetic structures, the mechanism by which particles are accelerated to relativistic energies, and the source or sources of heating the dust and gas, recent studies have been able to distinguish the inner 200pc of the nucleus from the disk of the Galaxy in at least two more respects: (1) the recognition that the magnetic field has a large-scale structure and is strong, uniform and dynamically important; and (2) the physics of interstellar matter may be dominated by the poloidal component of the magnetic field.


1990 ◽  
Vol 140 ◽  
pp. 215-218 ◽  
Author(s):  
S. Sukumar ◽  
R.J. Allen

Recent VLA 20 cm radio continuum observations of the southern face-on barred spiral M83 reveal that the magnetic field is very highly aligned at the outer regions (~12 kpc radius) and totally disrupted in the inner regions (<6 kpc) of the galaxy. The RM variation suggests an axisymmetric morphology for the magnetic field. VLA 6 cm continuum polarization observations of the edge-on spiral NGC 891 reveal ordered magnetic fields at large Z-distances (~3 kpc) from the galactic plane, probably emanating from the disk through instabilities.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Swagatam Sen

Abstract A two component model of gravitation potential for spiral galaxies has been proposed which couples a spherically symmetric component with a second component that observes planar radial symmetry on the galactic plane and vanishes outside an annular disk beyond the edge of galaxy's effective radius. It is shown that such a model for potential satisfying Poisson Equation would produce rotation velocity curve towards the edge of the galaxy which is flat over distance from the galactic centre. This relationship, which is experimentally observed in many spiral galaxies, is shown as a consequence of classical understanding of gravity and specific symmetry of the gravitational potential without any extrinsic requirement of dark matter. It is also demonstrated that this potential directly yields a relationship between inner mass of the galaxy and terminal rotation velocity, which has been empirically observed and known as Baryonic Tully-Fisher relations. Furthermore a direct test has been proposed for experimental verification of the proposed theory.


1990 ◽  
Vol 140 ◽  
pp. 369-372
Author(s):  
Wolfgang Reich

High frequency polarization observations reveal the existence of a poloidal magnetic field structure in the Galactic Centre region on scales of about 200 pc. At lower frequencies large non–thermal spurs are seen tracing the magnetic field up to kpc distances from the Galactic Centre.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document