Radcliffe wave

The Radcliffe wave is the nearest coherent gaseous structure in the Milky Way, dotted with a related high concentration of interconnected stellar nurseries. It stretches about 8,800 light years. This structure runs with the trajectory of the Milky Way arms, and lies at its closest (the Taurus Molecular Cloud) at around 400 light-years and at its farthest about 5,000 light-years (the Cygnus X star complex) from the Sun, always within the Local Arm (Orion Arm) itself, spanning about 40% of its length and on average 20% of its width. Its discovery was announced in January 2020 and its proximity surprised astronomers. Image:Orion Arm.JPG|frame|center|Clickable map of the nearby circa one-sixth outer sector of the galaxy, thus clearly showing the Local Arm (Orion Arm) and neighboring arms - as well as the [[Great Orion Nebula]] (as a very luminous feature of the less bright [[Orion molecular cloud complex]]) and broad-clouds [[North America Nebula]] (and [[Pelican Nebula]]) which is an intrinsic part of the Radcliffe wave. rect 126 149 188 182 [[Rosette Nebula]] rect 285 116 327 145 [[Crab Nebula]] rect 243 245 284 274 [[Orion Nebula]] rect 299 288 345 312 [[Trifid Nebula]] rect 343 304 384 333 [[Lagoon Nebula]] rect 393 322 434 353 [[Omega Nebula]] rect 445 322 494 353 [[Eagle Nebula]] rect 424 244 483 280 [[North America Nebula]] rect 293 248 319 266 [[Rigel]] rect 225 179 299 246 [[Orion's Belt]] rect 331 211 368 234 [[Polaris]] rect 318 236 353 259 [[Sun]] poly 302 176 303 241 315 242 361 177 [[Betelgeuse]] rect 419 222 458 245 [[Deneb]] poly 0 123 508 118 637 160 637 217 470 163 0 178 [[Perseus Arm]] poly 2 202 460 201 633 261 637 326 408 260 1 258 [[#Interactive maps|Orion Arm]] poly 1 284 397 293 633 360 637 477 541 475 357 413 0 400 [[Sagittarius Arm]] desc bottom-left Scientists do not know how the undulation of dust and gas formed; it has been suggested that it could be a result of a much smaller galaxy colliding with the Milky Way, leaving behind "ripples", or could be related to dark matter.