Magnetized inflow accreting to center of Milky Way galaxy

Friday, August 17, 2018 - 08:00 in Astronomy & Space

Are magnetic fields an important guiding force for gas accreting to a supermassive black hole (SMBH) like the one that our Milky Way galaxy hosts? The role of magnetic fields in gas accretion is little understood, and trying to observe it has been challenging to astronomers. Researchers at the Academia Sinica Institute of Astronomy and Astrophysics (ASIAA), Taiwan, led by Dr. Pei-Ying Hsieh, have obtained a good measurement by using the instruments on the James Clerk Maxwell Telescope (JCMT). Their result provides clear evidence that the orientation of the magnetic field is in alignment with the molecular torus and ionized streamers rotating with respect to Sagittarius A*—the black hole at the center of the Milky Way. The findings are published in Astrophysical Journal in 2018 August.

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