New research suggests our solar system is encircled by a magnetic tunnel
CTV
Our entire solar system and some nearby stars may be surrounded by a vast magnetic tunnel, according to a Canadian scientist who has set out a unified theory to explain two existing features in space.
In a radio map of the night sky, the North Polar Spur and the Fan Region are two bright, tendril-like gas features in our galaxy, which emit a large amount of radio waves in many frequencies. Although they’re on opposite sides of the sky, new research is suggesting that they are actually connected.
“If we were to look up in the sky, we would see this tunnel-like structure in just about every direction we looked -- that is, if we had eyes that could see radio light,” Dr. Jennifer West, a research associate at the Dunlap Institute for Astronomy and Astrophysics with the University of Toronto, said in a press release.
West and the lead author of the new research propose that the North Polar Spur and the Fan Region are part of one enormous magnetic loop around our solar system, around 1,000 light-years long.
“That’s the equivalent distance of travelling between Toronto and Vancouver two trillion times,” West said.
