Daily Image

07-03-2007
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Alcoholic masers wear polaroid sunglasses

Submitter: Lisa Harvey-Smith
Description: This 1000 AU blob of methyl alcohol, sitting in a region of star-formation in our galaxy, is amplifying cosmic microwaves in an astronomical MASER process. The maser emission is also polarized by the magnetic field in the region. This is useful because we can use masers to map the magnetic fields in a range of astronomical regions.
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