Search: Astronomers observe the magnetic field of the remains of the supernova 1987A –

. To be an impressive observational achievement, the detection provides insight into the early stages of evolution of supernova remnants and cosmic magnetism within them.

"The magnetism we detected is about 50,000 times weaker than a refrigerator magnet" Prof. Bryan Gaensler. "And we were able to measure this at a distance of about 1.6 million billion kilometers."

"It is the earliest possible detection of the magnetic field formed after the explosion of a mbadive star," says Dr. Giovanna Zanardo

Gaensler is director of the Dunlap Institute of Astronomy and Astrophysics at the University of Toronto and co-author of the article announcing that the discovery will be published in the Astrophysical Journal on June 29. The main author, Zanardo, and the co-author, Professor Lister Staveley-Smith, are both from the International Center for Research in Astronomy at the University of Western Australia

SN 1987A was co -discovered by astronomer Ian Shelton of the University of Toronto. in February 1987, from the Southern Observatory of the University of Toronto, in northern Chile. It is located in the Large Magellanic Cloud, a companion of the Milky Way dwarf galaxy, at a distance of 168,000 light-years from Earth. It was the first naked-eye supernova observed since astronomer Johannes Kepler saw a supernova more than 400 years ago.

In the thirty years that followed the supernova, the materials expelled by the explosion, as well as the star's shockwave Death traveled outward through the gas and dust that surrounded the star before it explodes. Today, when we look at the rest, we see rings of matter forming through the debris and shockwaves of the supernova.

Using the Australia Compact Array Telescope at the Paul Wild Observatory, Gaensler and his colleagues observed the magnetic field by studying radiation from the object. By badyzing the properties of this radiation, they were able to trace the magnetic field.

"The picture shows what it would look like if you could sprinkle iron filings on the expanding cloud of debris, 170 thousand light-years away." Gaensler

What they found, it is that the magnetic field of the rest was not chaotic but that it already showed a certain degree of order. Astronomers have known that supernova remnants are aging, their magnetic fields are stretched and aligned in ordered patterns. So, the team observation showed that a supernova remnant can put order in a magnetic field in the relatively short period of thirty years.

Earth's magnetic field lines turn north and south. . By comparison, the magnetic field lines badociated with SN 1987A are like the spokes of a bicycle wheel aligned from the center to the outside.

"At such a young age," says Zanardo, "all that remains stellar moves incredibly fast and changing rapidly, but the magnetic field seems well combed to the edge of the shell."

Gaensler and his colleagues will continue to observe the rest in constant evolution. "As it continues to expand and evolve," says Gaensler, "we will observe the shape of the magnetic field to see how it changes as the shock wave and debris cloud become transform into new material. "