Sydney, Jan 7 (IANS) The magnetic field at the core of the Milky Way is at least 10 times stronger than the rest of our galaxy, according to a finding that can affect diverse fields from star formation theory to cosmology.
The evidence is significant because it gives astronomers a lower limit on the magnetic field, an important factor in calculating a whole range of astronomical data.

Roland Crocker, study leader and David Jones worked on the project while based at Monash University and University of Adelaide. The two physicists are now at the Max-Planck-Institute for Nuclear Physics, Germany.

“This research will challenge current thinking among astronomers. For the last 30 years, there has been considerable uncertainty about the exact value of the magnetic field in the centre of the Milky Way,” Crocker said in a release.

“If our Galactic Centre’s magnetic field is stronger than we thought, this raises additional questions of how it got so strong when fields in the early universe are, in contrast, quite weak,” he said.

“We know now that more than 10 percent of the galaxy’s magnetic energy is concentrated in less than 0.1 percent of its volume, right at its centre,” the scientist said.

These findings have been published in ‘Nature’.