SUMMARY: Astronomers from UC Berkeley University have recently discovered a spiraling magnetic field in space, wrapped around a long, thin cloud of gas and dust called the Orion Molecular Cloud. The coiled magnetic field has pulled this gas cloud into a thin filament. Astronomers have suspected that magnetic forces can define the shape of interstellar clouds, but they haven't seen evidence for it, until now. The Orion Molecular Cloud contains two stellar nurseries; one in the belt region, and another in the sword region of the Orion constellation.

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here's a composite image centred on the orion nebula (the brightest white blob in the image).



red = 656nm (h-alpha comp red light) hydrogen
green = 240micron (sfd infrared) carbon dust
blue = 100micron (iras infrared) carbon dust
equatorial/gnomonic projection

the filament extends downwards and to the left of the nebula...and crosses barnard's loop (seen in orange).

the bright yellow-green section of the filament is the bit that has "the slinky around it" according to the above article.


galactic/gnomonic projection

Another good example of what appear to be spiraling magnetic field in space, are the Filaments in the Cygnus Loop, (from Astronomy Picture of the Day (18 Jan 2003):


Regards,
Ian Tresman

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Ian Tresman
plasma-universe.com

I had provided some peer-reviewed citations to articles that I felt were relevant to this news release, and a couple of Web sites, but Administrator Nereid felt they were not mainstream, and duplicates. They can be seen in the Against the Mainstream Forum, here (click Thread, top right, for context).

Regards,
Ian Tresman

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Ian Tresman
plasma-universe.com

Hi everyone! My experience has been that a "permanent" magnet can cause current flow when it moves near a conductor. What might the "permanent" magnet be in this case? It's more likely that the Birkelund current(magnetic slinky) is causing the magnetic field. That's how electricity works on Earth. I welcome a conversation on this topic!
Larry White

Hi larryduane100,

This is your second post, and the second time you've tried to discuss an ATM topic outside of the ATM section. Next time you will be suspended. This is an official warning.

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Forming opinions as we speak