The Double Helix Nebula:
a magnetic torsional wave propagating out of the
Galactic centre
Mark Morris1, Keven Uchida2, and Tuan Do Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of California, Los Angeles, Los
Angeles, CA 90095-1547, USA   
Center for Radiophysics and Space Research, Cornell University, Space Sciences
Building, Ithaca, NY 14853-6801

Radioastronomical studies have indicated that the magnetic field in the central few
hundred parsecs of our Milky Way Galaxy has a dipolar geometry and a strength
substantially larger than elsewhere in the Galaxy, with estimates ranging up to a
milligauss1-6. A strong, large-scale magnetic field can affect the Galactic orbits of
molecular clouds by exerting a drag on them, it can inhibit star formation, and it
can guide a wind of cosmic rays away from the central region, so a characterization
of the magnetic field at the Galactic center is important for understanding much of
the activity there.

Here, we report Spitzer Space Telescope observations of an
unprecedented infrared nebula having the morphology of an intertwined double
helix.

This feature is located about 100 pc from the Galaxy's dynamical centre
toward positive Galactic latitude, and its axis is oriented perpendicular to the
Galactic plane. The observed segment is about 25 pc in length, and contains about
1.25 full turns of each of the two continuous, helically wound strands. We interpret
this feature as a torsional Alfvén wave propagating vertically away from the
Galactic disk, driven by rotation of the magnetized circumnuclear gas disk. As
such, it offers a new morphological probe of the Galactic center magnetic field. ...

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I give up. People just gotta keep on discovering new confusing stuff. Now there's a double-helix of stars and dust right near the black hole at the center of the galaxy!! It's getting so a man can't even hear himself think around here!!

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