L328 Molecular Cloud & Magnetic Fields

News Context: Astronomers at the Indian Institute of Astrophysics (IIA) published a study (Jan 14, 2026) in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society mapping the magnetic fields of the L328 molecular cloud, located 700 light-years away.

• The Discovery: Using the James Clerk Maxwell Telescope (JCMT) in Hawai'i, researchers traced how magnetic fields remain "remarkably connected" from the massive scale of a gas cloud down to the tiny, collapsing star-forming core.
• Significance: Star formation is a tug-of-war between Gravity (trying to collapse the cloud) and Magnetic Fields/Turbulence (trying to resist it). The study found that magnetic fields are nearly 10 times stronger than thermal energy, proving they are the primary "guides" for how a star is born.
• The S2 Sub-core: The team focused on a VeLLO (Very Low Luminosity Object) within L328. Since these proto-stars have weak outflows, they serve as "pristine laboratories" to study the primordial magnetic fields before they are disrupted by a full-grown star’s energy.