ID | 115006 |
Author |
Pattle, Kate
University of Central Lancashire|National Tsing Hua University
Ward-Thompson, Derek
University of Central Lancashire
Hasegawa, Tetsuo
National Astronomical Observatory of Japan
Bastien, Pierre
Université de Montréal
Kwon, Woojin
Korea Astronomy and Space Science Institute|Korea University of Science and Technology
Lai, Shih-Ping
National Tsing Hua University|Academia Sinica Institute of Astronomy and Astrophysics
Qiu, Keping
Nanjing University
Furuya, Ray
Tokushima University
Tokushima University Educator and Researcher Directory
KAKEN Search Researchers
Berry, David
East Asian Observatory
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Keywords | H II regions
ISM: individual objects (M16)
ISM: magnetic fields
stars: formation
submillimeter: ISM
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Content Type |
Journal Article
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Description | We present the first high-resolution, submillimeter-wavelength polarimetric observations of—and thus direct observations of the magnetic field morphology within—the dense gas of the Pillars of Creation in M16. These 850 μm observations, taken as part of the B-Fields in Star-forming Region Observations Survey (BISTRO) using the POL-2 polarimeter on the Submillimeter Common-User Bolometer Array 2 (SCUBA-2) camera on the James Clerk Maxwell Telescope (JCMT), show that the magnetic field runs along the length of the Pillars, perpendicular to and decoupled from the field in the surrounding photoionized cloud. Using the Chandrasekhar–Fermi method we estimate a plane-of-sky magnetic field strength of 170–320 μG in the Pillars, consistent with their having been formed through the compression of gas with initially weak magnetization. The observed magnetic field strength and morphology suggests that the magnetic field may be slowing the Pillars' evolution into cometary globules. We thus hypothesize that the evolution and lifetime of the Pillars may be strongly influenced by the strength of the coupling of their magnetic field to that of their parent photoionized cloud—i.e., that the Pillars' longevity results from magnetic support.
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Journal Title |
The Astrophysical Journal Letters
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Publisher | IOP Publishing
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Volume | 860
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Issue | 1
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Start Page | L6
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Published Date | 2018-06-07
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Rights | Original content from this work may be used under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 licence(https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/). Any further distribution of this work must maintain attribution to the author(s) and the title of the work, journal citation and DOI.
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language |
eng
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Publisher
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departments |
Liberal Arts and Sciences
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