Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

Magnetic fields

Magnetic dynamo active in the young Universe

Nature Astronomy volume 7, pages 1154–1155 (2023)Cite this article

Subjects

Recent detection of polarized thermal emission from dust grains in a high-redshift, rapidly star-forming galaxy can give us an insight into the formation and evolution of magnetic fields in large-scale structures of the early Universe.

Magnetic fields are ubiquitous in the Universe and affect the evolution of gas, stars and galaxies. However, the origin of magnetic fields is still a matter of debate. Cosmological phase transitions, battery effects in young rotating gas clouds or instabilities in shock fronts in proto-galaxies are thought to generate the first (though weak) magnetic fields. A small-scale yet efficient dynamo is believed to have quenched the amplification of the magnetic field in the young, turbulent galaxies. With the onset of global rotation in evolving galaxies, the large-scale dynamo is triggered, causing the gradual straightening of the field structure. This process may take many billion years until complete ordering of the field is achieved1,2. Common wisdom is that young galaxies should have strong fields but a chaotic field structure.

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution

Access options

Rent or buy this article

Prices vary by article type

from$1.95

to$39.95

Learn more

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

Fig. 1: The magnetic-field orientation of the gravitationally lensed galaxy 9io9 at redshift 2.6.

References

  1. Arshakian, T. G., Beck, R., Krause, M. & Sokoloff, D. Astron. Astrophys. 494, 21–32 (2009).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  2. Rodrigues, L. F. S. et al. Mon. Not. R. Astron. Soc. 483, 2424–2440 (2019).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  3. Geach, J. E. et al. Nature https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-023-06346-4 (2023).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  4. Borlaff, A. S. et al. Astrophys. J. 952, 4 (2023).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  5. Beck, R. et al. Galaxies 8, 4 (2020).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  6. Geach, J. E. et al. Astrophys. J. Lett. 866, L12 (2018).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  7. Geach, J. E. et al. Mon. Not. R. Astron. Soc. 52, 502–510 (2015).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Max-Planck-Institut für Radioastronomie, Bonn, Germany

    Rainer Beck

Authors
  1. Rainer Beck
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Rainer Beck.

Ethics declarations

Competing interests

The author declares no competing interests.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and Permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Beck, R. Magnetic dynamo active in the young Universe. Nat Astron 7, 1154–1155 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41550-023-02072-z

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41550-023-02072-z

Search

Advanced search

Quick links

Nature Briefing

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing