2021/09/29 by J. L. West, Jennifer West, T. L. Landecker +5 · 1 citation
Physics and Astronomy · #Astronomy #Astrophysics #Astrophysics and Cosmic Phenomena #Astrophysics and Star Formation Studies #Bundle #Context (archaeology) #Galaxies: Formation, Evolution, Phenomena #Galaxy #Geography #Physics #Polar #Sky #astro-ph.GA
paper · pdf · doi:10.3847/1538-4357/ac2ba2
21 pages, 13 figures, Accepted to ApJ
arxiv created 2021/09/29 · openalex created_date 2021/10/11 · openalex publication_date 2021/12/01 · arxiv updated 2021/12/22 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/06
Abstract We present a simple, unified model that can explain two of the brightest, large-scale, diffuse, polarized radio features in the sky, the North Polar Spur (NPS) and the Fan Region, along with several other prominent loops. We suggest that they are long, magnetized, and parallel filamentary structures that surround the Local arm and/or Local Bubble, in which the Sun is embedded. We show that this model is consistent with the large number of observational studies on these regions and is able to resolve an apparent contradiction in the literature that suggests that the high-latitude portion of the NPS is nearby, while lower-latitude portions are more distant. Understanding the contributions of this local emission is critical to developing a complete model of the Galactic magnetic field. These very nearby structures also provide context to help understand similar nonthermal, filamentary structures that are increasingly being observed with modern radio telescopes.