Astronomers Make First Detection of Polarized Radio Waves from a Gamma-Ray Burst (VIDEO)
Caption
Scientists have measured the size of magnetic field patches in a gamma-ray burst jet for the first time by observing polarized radio waves. Individual patches of ordered magnetic fields in the jet each have random directions of polarization. The observed polarization signal is the average from all visible patches (inside the white circle), and is proportional to one over the square root of the number of patches we can see, and thus is much less than the value expected (about 60%) if the field were completely ordered within the white region. As the number of patches in the visible area grows, the measured polarization declines with time.
Credit
Dr Kitty Yeung and Dr Tanmoy Laskar
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Credit Dr Kitty Yeung and Dr Tanmoy Laskar
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