NASA | JPL-Caltech | SOFIA | HAWC+ | 2019 Mar 05
The Cigar Galaxy (also known as M82) is famous for its extraordinary speed in making new stars, with stars being born 10 times faster than in the Milky Way. Now, data from the Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy, or SOFIA, have been used to study this galaxy in greater detail, revealing how material that affects the evolution of galaxies may get into intergalactic space.
Researchers found, for the first time, that the galactic wind flowing from the center of the Cigar Galaxy (M82) is aligned along a magnetic field and transports a very large mass of gas and dust - the equivalent mass of 50 million to 60 million Suns. ...
Besides being a classic example of a starburst galaxy, because it is forming an extraordinary number of new stars compared with most other galaxies, M82 also has strong winds blowing gas and dust into intergalactic space. Astronomers have long theorized that these winds would also drag the galaxy's magnetic field in the same direction, but despite numerous studies, there has been no observational proof of the concept. ...
SOFIA Far-Infrared Imaging Polarimetry of M82 and NGC 253:
Exploring the Supergalactic Wind ~ Terry Jay Jones et al
- Astrophysical Journal Letters 870(1):L9 (2019 Jan 01) DOI: 10.3847/2041-8213/aaf8b9
arXiv.org > astro-ph > arXiv:1812.06816 > 17 Dec 2018