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Figure 1.The observed structure of the Milky Way's spiral arms [1]. The Orion Arm, also known as the Orion–Cygnus Arm, is a minor spiral arm within the Milky Way Galaxy spanning 3,500 light-years (1,100 parsecs) in width and extending roughly 20,000 light-years (6,100 parsecs) in length. [2]
The Scutum–Centaurus Arm, also known as Scutum-Crux arm, is a long, diffuse curving streamer of stars, gas and dust that spirals outward from the proximate end of the Milky Way's central bar. The Milky Way has been posited since the 1950s to have four spiral arms ; numerous studies contest or nuance this number. [ 1 ]
The inner portion of the Arm is called the Norma Arm in narrow meaning. The outer end of it is identified either with the Cygnus Arm (not to be confused with local and minor Orion-Cygnus Arm), which lies outside the Perseus Arm, or the Outer Arm, which is located farther away from the center of the Galaxy than the Cygnus Arm. [1] The Norma Arm ...
While Earth is located about 26,000 light-years from what's known as the galactic center, the outer portions of the Milky Way are even further, at about 58,000 light-years from our galaxy's ...
With the discovery that the disk of the Andromeda Galaxy (M31) extends much farther than previously thought, [234] the possibility of the disk of the Milky Way extending farther is apparent, and this is supported by evidence from the discovery of the Outer Arm extension of the Cygnus Arm [217] [235] and of a similar extension of the Scutum ...
Observed structure of the Milky Way's spiral arms. The Carina–Sagittarius Arm (also known as the Sagittarius Arm or Sagittarius–Carina Arm, labeled -I [clarification needed]) is generally thought to be a minor spiral arm of the Milky Way galaxy. [1] Each spiral arm is a long, diffuse curving streamer of stars that radiates from the Galactic ...
Astronomers using the Gaia space telescope have located two ancient streams of stars that helped the Milky Way galaxy grow and evolve more than 12 billion years ago.
The Milky Way was once considered an ordinary spiral galaxy. Astronomers first began to suspect that the Milky Way is a barred spiral galaxy in the 1960s. [38] [39] Their suspicions were confirmed by Spitzer Space Telescope observations in 2005, [40] which showed that the Milky Way's central bar is larger than what was previously suspected.