Astronomy and Astrophysics – Astrophysics
Scientific paper
Oct 1990
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=1990apj...361..483r&link_type=abstract
Astrophysical Journal, Part 1 (ISSN 0004-637X), vol. 361, Oct. 1, 1990, p. 483-486.
Astronomy and Astrophysics
Astrophysics
38
Hydroxyl Emission, Interstellar Magnetic Fields, Interstellar Masers, Molecular Clouds, Star Formation, Zeeman Effect, Very Large Array (Vla), Very Long Base Interferometry
Scientific paper
Zeeman splitting of OH maser lines yields the line-of-sight direction and the full magnitude of the magnetic field in the molecular gas in which the maser action occurs. The line-of-sight direction of the magnetic field from 17 maser sources indicates a systematic magnetic field over large regions of the Galaxy. This result suggests that the magnetic field direction is largely preserved during contraction from interstellar densities (about 1/cu cm), through those of giant molecular clouds (about 1000/cu cm), to those of OH masers (about 10 to the 7th/cu cm) near newly formed massive stars, and that the Galactic magnetic field is a dominant force in the process of collapse toward stellar densities. Also, this result confirms conclusions based on rotation measures of pulsars and extragalactic radio sources that there is a large-scale Galactic field, and it offers a new and powerful method to determine the magnetic field structure in the entire disk of the Galaxy.
Reid Mark J.
Silverstein E. M.
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