<aside> 🔭 Marc-Antoine Miville-Deschênes, CNRS, AIM, CEA-Saclay, Paris-Saclay University, France

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Using LIC to visualize interstellar polarization

In 2014, inspired by the work of Diego Falceta-Goncalvez on the representation of vector fields from numerical simulations using the Line Integral Convolution (LIC) technique, I produced a set of images combining Planck intensity and polarization data to visualize the relationship between the Galactic magnetic field orientation and the structure of the interstellar medium.

This page regroups the images I made that became public, with links to related ESA pages and to high-resolution files. These files can be reused, with the mention "copyright ESA/Planck collaboration, credit Marc-Antoine Miville-Deschênes". For any questions related to the use of these images, please contact me.

In these images, the colour scale represents the total intensity of dust emission, computed from a combination of Planck observations at 353, 545 and 857 GHz, and IRAS 100 micron. It reveals the structure of interstellar clouds in the Milky Way. The texture is based on measurements of the angle of dust polarized emission at 353 GHz, which in turn indicates the orientation of the magnetic field.

All-sky view

The interaction between interstellar dust in the Milky Way and the structure of our Galaxy’s magnetic field, as detected by ESA’s Planck satellite over the entire sky.

https://s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com/secure.notion-static.com/c33810ca-92c6-4694-8d76-3d193a08c3b2/Polarised_emission_from_Milky_Way_dust.jpg

ESA : Polarised emission from Milky Way dust

This image was **Astronomy Picture of the Day** of June 17, 2020

High res (75.4 MB)

<aside> 💡 Here is a movie (in french) showing an overview of the Milky Way map

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The North Celestial Loop

https://s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com/secure.notion-static.com/95ebe17a-18f4-4ad3-a3c0-e04dc5c8783a/The_spider_in_the_loop.jpg

This is the first image that was made public on December 1st, 2014. It first appeared on the french Planck-HFI website. It was then extensively used to illustrate the second release of Planck results in 2014. In particular this image was featured in the New York Times

ESA : The spider in the loop

High res (7.7 MB)

The Polaris Flare

The emission from dust is computed from a combination of Planck observations at 353, 545 and 857 GHz, whereas the direction of the magnetic field is based on Planck polarisation data at 353 GHz. This frame has an area of 30 x 30º on the sky, and the colours represent the intensity of dust emission.

The emission from dust is computed from a combination of Planck observations at 353, 545 and 857 GHz, whereas the direction of the magnetic field is based on Planck polarisation data at 353 GHz. This frame has an area of 30 x 30º on the sky, and the colours represent the intensity of dust emission.

This image was featured in journal Le Monde on December 10, 2014

ESA : Planck’s flame-filled view of the Polaris Flare

High res (6.8 MB)


BICEP2 field

https://s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com/secure.notion-static.com/21e34237-0c56-4834-a532-ce33b9f72915/BICEP2-medium.jpg

On January 30, 2015, the Planck collaboration announced that B-modes signal detected by the BICEP2 team could be attributed to polarised emission from Galactic interstellar dust, challenging the primordial B-modes interpretation.

This image spans 60° on each side. The highlighted region shows the position of the small patch of the sky that was observed with BICEP2 and the Keck Array.

ESA : Planck view of BICEP2 field

High res (2.4 MB)

The Galactic plane

https://s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com/secure.notion-static.com/350b650a-e463-47ed-806f-6bc053597047/galactic-plane-small.jpg

This image was Astronomy Picture of the Day of January 27, 2015

ESA : The magnetic field along the Galactic plane

High res (5.9 MB)


Carina nebula

https://s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com/secure.notion-static.com/6e56c183-2eb8-4e73-b074-ad4f7b6e6ddf/LIC_Carina_small.jpg

High res (5.8 MB)

Acquila Rift

https://s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com/secure.notion-static.com/5c07a422-1f7a-4e37-a34f-03f844910c04/LIC_AcquilaRift_small.jpg

High res (7.2 MB)

Rho-Ophiuchi

https://s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com/secure.notion-static.com/a20b0157-932d-4120-8ba1-31404f88dfdd/LIC_galactic_center_small.jpg

High res (6.1 MB)

Taurus

https://s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com/secure.notion-static.com/e90b4050-f046-4ea1-81c0-65b0f962d78b/LIC_Taurus_small.jpg

High res (7.9 MB)