SOFIA Far-Infrared Imaging Polarimetry of M82 and NGC253: Exploring the Supergalactic Wind
Event date
Speaker
Terry Jones
Affiliation
University of Minn
Location
N/A
Event Type
Teletalk

Starburst galaxies are an important phenomenon in the universe due to the presence of enhanced star formation and the accompanying strong outflows into the intergalactic medium. Nearby starburst galaxies M82 and NGC 253 with their massive outflows provide an excellent laboratory for the study of starburst-driven winds where we can spatially resolve the wind and study the magnetic field geometry in detail. We find that the magnetic field in M82 has been entrained into a supergalactic wind that is revealed to originate from a base area in the disk of at least 700pc in diameter. Polarimetry of NGC 253 shows some evidence for a similar phenomena, but the observations are less clear than for M82.

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