(ORDO NEWS) — Astronomer Jennifer West has proposed a bold model that suggests that the entire solar system is surrounded by a giant magnetic tunnel.
According to a press release from the University of Toronto, presented by a team of scientists led by West, the proposed model focuses on two major celestial structures: the North Polar Spur and the Fan Region (Fan Region).
The structures discovered in the 1960s were not considered to be related regions, but based on new research, they may be part of the huge tunneling magnetic field that surrounds the solar system.
“If we looked up into the sky, we would see this tunnel structure in virtually all directions, wherever we look,” West wrote in a press release. “Of course, provided that we had eyes that could see the radio emission.”
Magnetic structures and the solar system
To reach these conclusions, West’s team created their own computer model demonstrating what the radio sky looks like from Earth .
Studying the model, the authors of the study suggested that the two structures were connected by “rope” magnetic filaments
Scientists estimate that these structures are located about 350 light years from the solar system, and their length is more than 1000 light years.
“This is the equivalent of two trillion times the travel distance between Toronto and Vancouver,” West added.
Future research
The team plans to complete even more sophisticated simulations in the hopes of understanding the role of the magnetic tunnel in our galaxy.
“Magnetic fields don’t exist in isolation, they all have to be connected to each other,” West explained in a press release. “So the next step is to better understand how this local magnetic field relates to the larger scale galactic magnetic field, and to the smaller scale magnetic fields of our Sun and Earth.”
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