Magnetic Mysteries
Abstract
At present--some 14 billion years after the Big Bang--magnetic fields of appreciable strength are found in virtually all galaxies and also in galaxy clusters. Although weak compared with the fields at Earth's or the Sun's surface, these fields are enormous considering the scales involved and may influence the formation of stars and galaxies, the dynamics of galaxy clusters, and energy transport within galaxy clusters. Even 1 to 2 billion years after the Big Bang, such fields must already have existed at about the same strength as today. How did these fields arise? And did primordial magnetic fields exist in the early universe? Answers to these questions remain speculative, but upcoming space missions promise exciting insights.
- Publication:
-
Science
- Pub Date:
- June 2001
- DOI:
- 10.1126/science.1062407
- Bibcode:
- 2001Sci...292.2440B
- Keywords:
-
- cosmology;
- magnetic fields;
- early universe;
- galaxy clusters