Introduction:
The vast universe has always been pregnant with countless unsolved mysteries. In this mysterious sea of stars, a spiral galaxy called "Milky Way" is particularly eye-catching. Since ancient times, its nebulae, starlight, and mystical colors have attracted mankind's endless desire to explore. From the first observation with the naked eye to the later telescope peeping, mankind's understanding of this home galaxy has deepened bit by bit. Recently, a major discovery by Chinese scientists has injected a new dawn into the mystery of the Milky Way.
Have you ever heard that there is a huge magnetic ring around the vast galaxy? Its existence has long been known, but its actual size and intensity have long shrouded in mystery. It was only recently that the mystery was finally unraveled thanks to the unremitting efforts of a scientific research team at the National Astronomical Observatories of the Chinese Academy of Sciences.
How do they do it? It all starts with the Faraday spin effect. It is an astronomical phenomenon in which the polarization plane of an electromagnetic wave rotates as it passes through a magnetic field. By measuring this rotational effect of a large number of pulsars and alien galaxies in the Milky Way, scientists can use it to reflect the distribution of the Milky Way's magnetic field.
Once upon a time, when analyzing the data of the Faraday rotation effect in the region near the sun, researcher Han Jinlin noticed a peculiar phenomenon - the magnetic field on the upper and lower sides of the Milky Way disk is in opposite directions! This discovery has attracted the attention of international peers and has been written into several classic textbooks. Still, scientists at the time were not able to determine whether this magnetic field structure extended to the entire Milky Way halo.
Faced with this mystery, Dr. Jun Xu and researcher Jinlin Han adopted an innovative analytical approach. They stripped away the pulsar data from the nearby solar system and focused on analyzing the data at greater distances in an attempt to restore the distribution of the magnetic field throughout the galactic halo.
Through careful analysis of the massive amount of data, they finally discovered the surprising fact that the Faraday rotation effect in the sky of the entire galaxy exhibits a clear "antisymmetric" distribution! This means that in the halo of the Milky Way, there is a huge magnetic ring structure that extends from 6,000 light-years from the galactic center to 50,000 light-years away.
The solar system is located about 30,000 light-years in the heart of the galaxy, so this "interstellar community" we live in is actually nested within this magnetic ring. This discovery not only solves the long-standing doubts of scientists, but also provides key clues for the study of the origin and evolution of the cosmic magnetic field.
The formation mechanism of the cosmic magnetic field has always been one of the most challenging problems in astrophysics. We all know that in the early universe the magnetic field was very small, but today the magnetic field inside celestial bodies such as galaxies is very strong. So, how did these magnetic fields grow in strength over the long interstellar evolution?
In this regard, scientists have put forward theories such as "eddy current amplification in magnetohydrodynamics" and "cosmic magnetic reconnection" to explain this. In short, it is the action of rotational motion and the flow of high-energy particles that cause the tiny magnetic field to increase over hundreds of millions of years. The magnetic ring of the Milky Way is an intermediate product and witness of the evolution of the cosmic magnetic field.
Through the discoveries of scientists such as Xu Jun and Han Jinlin, we seem to have peeled back the mysterious cloak of the Milky Way and peeked into the inner magnetic field structure. However, the mysteries of the universe are much more than that. How does magnetic field affect the formation and evolution of galaxies? Is there a larger-scale magnetic field structure? These are all things that we need to explore in the future.
As physicist Maxwell put it, "Through careful experimental study and endless thinking, we will finally uncover the deepest mysteries of nature." "With this momentous discovery, we are one step closer to solving the centuries-old mystery of the Milky Way. Let's wait and see what to come.