Gigantic Wave of Star-Forming Gas Is Largest Known Structure of Its Kind in Milky Way
In 1879, astronomer Benjamin Gould identified what looked to be a ring in the sky, measuring about 3,000 light-years across, made of dust and gas and young stars - interconnected stellar nurseries. Now, a new discovery has shattered our understanding of this structure, which has been known for 150 years as Gould's Belt.
According to data collected by the Gaia mapping survey of the Milky Way galaxy, Gould's Belt is just part of a much larger structure - a colossal, serpentine wave of gas and dust 9,000 light-years long, 400 light-years wide, and extending 500 light-years above and below the galactic plane.
This wave - newly named the Radcliffe Wave, after Harvard University's Radcliffe Institute of Advanced Study, where the research was conducted - includes many of the stellar nurseries found in Gould's Belt, and others besides.
It's the largest gaseous structure identified in the Milky Way (although not the largest structure in the galaxy; the Fermi gamma-ray bubbles, for example, span 50,000 light-years).
https://www.sciencealert.com/a-colo...he-largest-gaseous-structure-in-the-milky-way
In 1879, astronomer Benjamin Gould identified what looked to be a ring in the sky, measuring about 3,000 light-years across, made of dust and gas and young stars - interconnected stellar nurseries. Now, a new discovery has shattered our understanding of this structure, which has been known for 150 years as Gould's Belt.
According to data collected by the Gaia mapping survey of the Milky Way galaxy, Gould's Belt is just part of a much larger structure - a colossal, serpentine wave of gas and dust 9,000 light-years long, 400 light-years wide, and extending 500 light-years above and below the galactic plane.
This wave - newly named the Radcliffe Wave, after Harvard University's Radcliffe Institute of Advanced Study, where the research was conducted - includes many of the stellar nurseries found in Gould's Belt, and others besides.
It's the largest gaseous structure identified in the Milky Way (although not the largest structure in the galaxy; the Fermi gamma-ray bubbles, for example, span 50,000 light-years).
https://www.sciencealert.com/a-colo...he-largest-gaseous-structure-in-the-milky-way
