Oral Presentation Astronomical Society of Australia Annual Scientific Meeting including HWWS 2013

MAGMO: Mapping the Galactic Magnetic field through OH masers (#50)

James Green 1 , Naomi McClure-Griffiths 1 , James Caswell 1 , Tim Robishaw 2 , Lisa Harvey-Smith 1 , Sui Ann Mao 3
  1. CSIRO Astronomy and Space Science, Epping, NSW, Australia
  2. DRAO, Penticton, Canada
  3. University of Wisconsin, Maddison, USA

We have completed observations for a project to examine large-scale magnetic fields pervading regions of high-mass star formation. Through correlating targeted observations of ground-state OH maser emission towards more than 500 sites of high mass star formation, this project aims to test if the orientations of weak large-scale magnetic fields can be maintained in the contraction (and field amplification) to the high densities encountered in regions of high-mass star formation. Our observations were made with the Australia Telescope Compact Array, using the new broadband backend, to capture all four ground-state transitions in full polarisation simultaneously. These observations were made towards sites of high-mass star formation traced by 6.7-GHz methanol masers detected in the Methanol Multibeam Survey. I will discuss the detections, local- and large-scale magnetic field properties and the implications for the role of magnetic fields in high-mass star formation.