(ORDO NEWS) –Magnetic fields permeate much of space. If these fields are the same age as the Big Bang, then they will be able to reveal the main cosmological mystery.
Magnetic fields surround the Earth, the Sun and all galaxies. Twenty years ago, astronomers discovered magnetism permeating entire clusters of galaxies, including the space between them. Invisible lines of fields stretch through intergalactic space, forming a pattern that looks like fingerprints.
Astronomers have previously discovered the largest magnetic field between galaxy clusters: 10 million light-years of magnetized space.
Later, a similar field was discovered in another part of the universe. “We may be looking at the tip of the iceberg,” said Federica Govoni of the National Institute of Astrophysics in Cagliari, Italy, who made the first discovery.
“This cannot be due to the activity of individual galaxies or single explosions, winds from supernovae. It’s something more,” says astrophysicist Franco Vazza of the University of Bologna, who creates state-of-the-art computer simulations of cosmic magnetic fields.
Cosmic magnetism can show the way back to the moment the universe was born. Therefore, magnetism must exist everywhere, even in the “voids” of space. In addition, it will help solve another cosmological puzzle known as the Hubble stress.
The problem with the Hubble tension is that the universe seems to be expanding much faster than some scientists think. Cosmologists Karsten Dzhedamzik and Levon Poghosyan argue that the weak magnetic fields of the early universe can influence the rate of cosmic expansion, increasing it.
Additional calculations are needed that will confirm the theory of early magnetism and not cross out other cosmological calculations. Even if the idea turns out to work on paper, researchers need to find convincing evidence for primordial magnetism, a hitherto unaccounted factor in the formation of the universe.
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