WASHINGTON: Physicists have figured out why we’re all so attracted to stars.For the first time ever, physicists from Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory (which they call PPPL, even though that’s essentially just making a spitting noise) believe they have begun to understand how stars and galaxies form their magnetic fields.
We already know how planets get their magnetic fields. It starts with swirling plasma-like liquids at the planet’s core. Those churning liquids conduct electricity and create an electric charge. However, until now, the origin of magnetic fields around stars and galaxies (which are by definition areas that share a large magnetic field) has been a mystery.
“Something is holding up the universe’s magnetic fields for billions of years,” said Amitava Bhattacharjee, co-author of a new paper on the subject, in a press release. “But how exactly does the universe get these persistent magnetic properties?”
To answer this question, theoretical physicists at the PPPL, which is funded by the U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Science, studied dynamos, which are blips of magnetism created by plasma-like fluids swirling around. Because plasma is electrically charged, if it moves in a certain way, it can create its own magnetic field, albeit a small one. Once that field is created, the continued churning can amplify that field, making its reach larger and larger.
