Abstract
FOUR very large, shell-shaped features are known from the surveys of radio emission from the Galaxy. Ranging in angular diameter from 40° (Loop IV) to 116° (Loop I, the North Polar Spur), they are polarized, nonthermal radio sources that appear to be associated with faint optical emission nebulae. These objects, formerly known as the galactic spurs, have recently been reviewed by the group at Manchester which has been responsible for much of the observational and theoretical work on them1. The term “spurs” seems to have given way to that of “loops”. We prefer to call them “giant loops”, because we believe that these objects represent a different phenomenon from that typified by the much smaller Cygnus Loop to which they are frequently compared.
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BRANDT, J., MARAN, S. New Theory for Giant Loops. Nature 235, 38–39 (1972). https://doi.org/10.1038/235038a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/235038a0
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