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A beautiful image of the "Whale Galaxy" shows thin, rope-like filaments of the galaxy's magnetic field.
The spiral galaxy's disk of stars is in pink, while the filaments, in green and blue, protrude outward, according to the National Radio Astronomy Observatory, which released the image.
“This is the first time that we have clearly detected what astronomers call large-scale, coherent, magnetic fields far in the halo of a spiral galaxy, with the field lines aligned in the same direction over distances of a thousand light-years. We even see a regular pattern of this organized field changing direction,” said Marita Krause, of the Max-Planck Institute for Radioastronomy in Bonn, Germany, in a statement.
NASA REVEALS GALACTIC 'FIREWORKS' IN STUNNING NEW IMAGE
The image above depicts a "Whale Galaxy" in all its glory. (Composite image by Jayanne English of the University of Manitoba, with NRAO VLA radio data from Silvia Carolina Mora-Partiarroyo and Marita Krause of the Max-Planck Institute for Radioastronomy)
The image was produced by combining data from multiple observations with the Very Large Array's giant dish antennas arranged in various configurations to show both large structures and finer details within the galaxy.
The galaxy, which is known as NGC 4631, is 25 million light-years from Earth in the constellation Canes Venatici, according to scientists.
The National Radio Astronomy Observatory is a facility of the National Science Foundation, operated under cooperative agreement by Associated Universities, Inc.