Earth's Milky Way neighborhood gets more respect
Monday, June 3, 2013 - 16:30
in Astronomy & Space
Our Solar System's Milky Way neighborhood just went upscale. We reside between two major spiral arms of our home galaxy, in a structure called the Local Arm. New research indicates that the Local Arm, previously thought to be only a small spur, instead is much more like the adjacent major arms, and is likely a significant branch of one of them.