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Scientific Highlights with the SMAMagnetic field structure of Orion BN/KLMagnetic fields play an important role in star formation, and the SMA can be used to infer their detailed distribution in star-forming regions by observing polarized dust continuum emission at high resolution. Next figure shows the magnetic fields in OMC1, which is a molecular cloud behind Orion M42. The large scale magnetic fields in the OMC1 are uniform and perpendicular to the ridge. On the other hand, if we zoom in to the most prominent peak called Orion BN/KL, the magnetic fields start to show azimuthally symmetric structure. The field directions are pointing toward 2.5” west of the center of explosive outflows, indicating that the pattern of the magnetic field is correlated with the outflows. Open the larger image |