  The giant elliptical galaxy NGC 1275, at the centre of the Perseus cluster,
is surrounded by a well-known giant nebulosity of emission-line filaments,
which are plausibly about >10^8 yr old. The filaments are dragged out from the
centre of the galaxy by the radio bubbles rising buoyantly in the hot
intracluster gas before later falling back. They act as dramatic markers of the
feedback process by which energy is transferred from the central massive black
hole to the surrounding gas. The mechanism by which the filaments are
stabilized against tidal shear and dissipation into the surrounding 4x10^7 K
gas has been unclear. Here we report new observations that resolve thread-like
structures in the filaments. Some threads extend over 6 kpc, yet are only 70 pc
wide. We conclude that magnetic fields in the threads, in pressure balance with
the surrounding gas, stabilize the filaments, so allowing a large mass of cold
gas to accumulate and delay star formation.
