Magnetic fields play an important role in the formation of dense molecular clouds which sets the stage for the birth of stars and planetary systems like our own.

This was the finding of astronomers at the Max Planck Institute for Astronomy who for the first time measured the alignment of magnetic fields in a distant galaxy suggesting that such magnetic fields play a key role in channeling matter to form denser clouds and set the stage for the birth of new stars.

Astronomers Hua-bai Li and Thomas Henning chose as a target the Triangulum galaxy, also known as M 33,which is 3 million light-years from Earth and which is oriented in just the right way.

They measured specific properties of radiation received from different regions of the galaxy which are correlated with the orientation of these region's magnetic fields using a telescope known as the Submillimeter Array (SMA).

Their study found that the magnetic fields associated with the galaxy's six most massive giant molecular clouds were orderly, and well aligned with the galaxy's spiral arms.

Astronomers know that molecular clouds consist mainly of hydrogen molecules and if the distribution of clouds in a spiral galaxy like our own Milky Way galaxy is traced, they are lined up along the spiral arms. However, scientists have different contentions with regards to molecular clouds.

Some scientists believe that it is the galaxies' magnetic field that guide and direct the condensation of interstellar matter to form denser clouds and facilitate their further collapse. Others contend that the cloud matter's gravitational attraction and turbulent motion of gas within the cloud are so strong as to cancel any influence of an outside magnetic field.

However, Li and Henning's observations are a strong indication that magnetic fields indeed play an important role when it comes to the formation of dense molecular clouds -- and to setting the stage for the birth of stars and planetary systems like our own.