Centaurus A's Warped Magnetic Fields

Explanation: When galaxies collide -- what happens to their magnetic fields ? To help find out, NASA pointed SOFIA , its flying 747, at galactic neighbor Centaurus A to observe the emission of polarized dust -- which traces magnetic fields. Cen A's unusual shape results from the clash of two galaxies with jets powered by gas accreting onto a central supermassive black hole . In the resulting featured image , SOFIA-derived magnetic streamlines are superposed on ESO ( visible : white), APEX ( submillimeter : orange), Chandra ( X-rays : blue), and Spitzer ( infrared : red) images. The magnetic fields were found to be parallel to the dust lane s on the outskirts of the galaxy but distorted near the center. Gravitational forces near the black hole accelerate ions and enhance the magnetic field . In sum, the collision not only combined the galaxies' masses -- but amplified their magnetic fields. These results provide new insights into how magnetic fields evolved in the early universe when mergers were more common.