Our star lies in a swirling arm of the Galaxy, a region full of gas
and dust, which is home to some of the youngest and brightest stars. Our
position on the spiral gives us ‘a worm’s eye view’ of the Orion Arm, explain
Nigel Henbest and Heather Couper in The Guide to the Galaxy (Cambridge,
pp 265, £35/ $39.95 hbk, £17.95/ $24.95 pbk). On this personal
tour of our home Galaxy, the Milky Way, Henbest and Couper show how difficult
it has been to perceive the structure of the Galaxy that we live in. But
a quiet revolution has taken place because observation instruments can now
be placed above the Earth’s atmosphere. The use of radio waves, X-rays and
infrared, for example, has revealed the structure of the Galaxy, showing
it to be an active place where stars die and form. The map on the right
shows the dense dark molecular clouds and the young stars from Cygnus to
Orion, and it is one of many other excellent illustrations.
More from 91av
Explore the latest news, articles and features
Popular articles
Trending 91av articles
1
Red-light therapy does have health benefits but not the ones you think
2
Man destined for Alzheimer's may have been saved by accidental therapy
3
Woman in cancer remission without treatment in highly unusual case
4
Extinct relative of koalas discovered in Western Australia
5
We have figured out a new way to send messages into the past
6
Hantavirus: Where has the deadly cruise ship outbreak come from?
7
A lost ancient script reveals how writing as we know it really began
8
Huge landslide in Alaska caused 481m-high tsunami
9
Cancer-causing chemical found to be leaking from gas cookers
10
Quantum computers simulated their biggest molecule yet – with help
