How can the universe’s turbulence influence the Earth? This is what a recent study published in Nature Astronomy hopes to address as a team of scientists compared a phenomenon throughout the universe known as magnetized turbulence to longstanding astrophysical models. This study has the potential to help scientists better understand the behavior of the universe and how it could influence life throughout the cosmos, as magnetized turbulence influences star formation, including metal mixing.
For the study, the researchers used a series of computer models to simulate magnetized turbulence throughout the Milky Way Galaxy with the goal of ascertaining magnetized turbulence’s movement and behavior. In the end, the researchers found that this turbulence could influence energy distribution between stars and star formation. These findings challenge longstanding models regarding magnetized turbulence and could help scientists better understand how energy is distributed throughout the universe, along with space activity closer to home.
‘‘The research has implications for predicting and monitoring space weather to better understand the plasma environment around satellites and future space missions, and also the acceleration of highly energetic particles, which damage everything, and could endanger human beings in space,” said Dr. Amitava Bhattacharjee, who is a Professor of Astrophysical Sciences at Princeton and a co-author on the study.
Composite image combining observations from the James Webb Space Telescope of the Phantom Galaxy (M74) (background) with a high-resolution simulation of galactic turbulence (inset). (Credit: ESA/Webb, NASA & CSA, J. Lee and the PHANGS-JWST Team; Acknowledgement: J. Schmidt; Simulation: J. Beattie.)
Going forward, the researchers aspire to use next-generation radio telescopes to conduct future studies regarding magnetized turbulence, specifically regarding its interaction within the interstellar medium, which is the region of space between solar systems. For context, NASA’s Voyager 1 and 2 spacecraft crossed into the interstellar medium in 2012 and 2018, respectively, and it took them 35 and 41 years, respectively, to reach the interstellar medium.
What new discoveries about magnetized turbulence will researchers make in the coming years and decades? Only time will tell, and this is why we science!
As always, keep doing science & keep looking up!
Sources: Nature Astronomy, EurekAlert!
