Magnetic fields in the regions where stars are born are likely much weaker than we previously believed due to a massive measurement error.
Current astronomical methods systematically underestimate the dispersion of polarization angles in star-forming clouds. This error has led scientists to overstate the strength of magnetic fields that control how gas collapses into stars. The entire field of star formation research has been operating under an 'overly magnetically-dominated' view for years. Correcting this scale suggests that gravity and turbulence play a much larger role in building the cosmos. This discovery forces a rewrite of the history and evolution of our galaxy. It changes our understanding of how our own sun and planet were formed.
Systematic underestimation of polarisation angle dispersion and its consequences for magnetic field strength estimates in star-forming regions
arXiv · 2605.03507
Polarised dust emission observations are a valuable tool to infer the structure of the magnetic field and the dispersion of polarisation position angles may be used to estimate magnetic field strengths. A natural consequence of magneto-dynamic turbulence is for the angular dispersion to have a length-scale dependence, making the measurement of angular dispersion non-trivial. In this paper, we present a study of parametrised, scale dependent maps, focusing on the effect of pixel size and beam con