Will create a three-dimensional image of the Milky Way’s magnetic field

A magnetic field extends throughout our Galaxy. Its force affects the swirling gas that fills the galaxy and that forms new stars. Wallenberg Academy Fellow Georgia Panopoulou will develop tools that make it possible to map the magnetic field in three dimensions. Her aim is to understand the flow of gas, our Galaxy. 

Because the Milky Way's magnetic field has been important to the galaxy’s evolution, astronomers have tried to picture how it looks and how it has changed over the history of the universe. Historical changes can be seen as patterns in the magnetic field as it is now. For example, when a massive star dies in a spectacular explosion called a supernova, the magnetic field can take the shape of a giant loop surrounding the expanding bubble of material. This geometry of the magnetic field gives astronomers a clue as to what happened. 

Researchers have so far managed to create a two-dimensional map of the magnetic field. Dr Georgia Panopoulou from Chalmers University of Technology will now add a third dimension to this map, allowing her and other researchers to get a much better idea of how the magnetic field twists and turns through our galaxy. 
New tools are necessary to create this three-dimensional image. Georgia Panopoulou will use the light from stars at known distances from Earth. As the light passes through the galaxy’s gas, it will be filtered and polarized by the dust particles contained in the gas. Because the gas has been shaped by the magnetic field, she can create an indirect picture of the magnetic field by mapping how this dusty gas polarized the light from the stars. 

As a Wallenberg Academy Fellow, Georgia Panopoulou will work at Chalmers University of Technology. 

Photo Patrik Lundin