The Sun could be dragging Earth through a vast cosmic tunnel in space. Dr. Jennifer West discovered that the Earth may be surrounded by what she describes as a magnetic tunnel that can be seen in radio waves.
Dr. Jennifer West, Research Associate at the Dunlap Institute for Astronomy and Astrophysics, is making a scientific case that two bright structures that are seen on opposite sides of the sky – previously considered to be separate – are actually connected and are made of rope-like filaments. This connection forms what looks like a tunnel around our solar system.
“If we were to look up in the sky,” explains West, “we would see this tunnel-like structure in just about every direction we looked – that is, if we had eyes that could see radio light.”
Called “the North Polar Spur” and “the Fan Region,” we’ve known about these two structures for a long time. “Since the 60s,” West says. But most scientific explanations have focused on them individually. West and her colleagues believe they are the first astronomers to connect them as a unit.