doi.org/10.25919/g3jd-av02
Credibility: 989
#Universe
Magnetic fields are an essential part of the universe
They influence the movement of tiny particles that, over time, form planets, stars, and even entire galaxies.
Although we don’t yet know exactly how these fields originated, we know they are present everywhere.
Earth itself has a magnetic field that guides compasses and helps migratory birds on their long journeys.
With the help of radio telescopes, astronomers can “illuminate” these invisible fields using light from distant galaxies.
In a recent study published in the journal “Publications of the Astronomical Society of Australia,” an international team led by Australian researchers created the largest and most detailed map of cosmic magnetic fields ever produced.
To do this, they used ASKAP, one of the world’s most advanced radio telescopes, located in Western Australia.
These magnetic fields vary enormously in intensity.
Near extreme objects, such as neutron stars and black holes, they can be billions of times stronger than Earth’s.
In the spaces between stars, they are millions of times weaker.
Even so, they are extremely important: they function as enormous batteries that store energy, control the evolution of galaxies, and can even slow down or prevent the formation of new stars.
The problem is that magnetic fields are invisible to us.
To detect them, scientists observe how the light from distant galaxies changes as it passes through these fields.
Light is a wave of electric and magnetic fields, and when passing through a magnetic region, its direction of vibration (polarization) is altered.
Radio telescopes capture this change in polarization and, with many measurements, it is possible to construct a map of cosmic magnetism.
Australia has always been at the forefront of this research.
As early as 1962, the Parkes telescope detected for the first time this twist in the polarization of light caused by magnetic fields outside Earth.
Since then, astronomers have been searching for more light sources to refine these maps.
The last major map was made in 2009, and for almost two decades there was nothing comparable, which limited the advancement of research.
The new map, called SPICE-RACS, represents a major leap.
It was created from data from previous surveys that identified nearly 4 million distant galaxies.
From these, researchers were able to use polarization information from about 350,000 galaxies.
The result is a collection almost ten times larger than the previous most complete map, revealing structures never before seen with such clarity.
In the map, the colors indicate the direction of the fields: red for fields pointing towards us and blue for those moving away, like the poles of a compass.
Much of the spiral and bubbling structures we see come from our own Milky Way.
In the finer details, signs of much more distant regions of the cosmos appear.
This map is already being used by scientists around the world and the data is publicly available.
In the future, new versions will combine even more information to create even more precise maps.
Furthermore, the ongoing POSSUM project is expected to complete its observations by 2030 and will allow us to look even further into the future, helping us understand how magnetic fields formed and evolved since the Big Bang.
This achievement marks the beginning of a new era in astronomy.
With increasingly powerful telescopes, such as those that will be part of the future SKA Observatory, we will be able to unravel the mysteries of these invisible fields that shape the universe as we know it.
Published in 06/09/2026 01h30
Text adapted by AI (Grok) and translated via Google API in the English version. Images from public image libraries or credits in the caption. Information about DOI, author and institution can be found in the body of the article.
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