25.2 Spiral structure

Learning objectives

By the end of this section, you will be able to:

• Describe the structure of the Milky Way Galaxy and how astronomers discovered it
• Compare theoretical models for the formation of spiral arms in disk galaxies

Astronomers were able to make tremendous progress in mapping the spiral structure of the Milky Way after the discovery of the 21-cm line that comes from cool hydrogen (see Between the Stars: Gas and Dust in Space ). Remember that the obscuring effect of interstellar dust prevents us from seeing stars at large distances in the disk at visible wavelengths. However, radio waves of 21-cm wavelength pass right through the dust, enabling astronomers to detect hydrogen atoms throughout the Galaxy. More recent surveys of the infrared emission from stars in the disk have provided a similar dust-free perspective of our Galaxy’s stellar distribution. Despite all this progress over the past fifty years, we are still just beginning to pin down the precise structure of our Galaxy.

The arms of the milky way

Our radio observations of the disk’s gaseous component indicate that the Galaxy has two major spiral arms that emerge from the bar and several fainter arms and shorter spurs. You can see a recently assembled map of our Galaxy’s arm structure—derived from studies in the infrared—in [link] .

Milky way bar and arms.

The Sun is near the inner edge of a short arm called the Orion Spur, which is about 10,000 light-years long and contains such conspicuous features as the Cygnus Rift (the great dark nebula in the summer Milky Way) and the bright Orion Nebula . [link] shows a few other objects that share this small section of the Galaxy with us and are easy to see. Remember, the farther away we try to look from our own arm, the more the dust in the Galaxy builds up and makes it hard to see with visible light.

Orion spur.

Formation of spiral structure

At the Sun’s distance from its center, the Galaxy does not rotate like a solid wheel or a CD inside your player. Instead, the way individual objects turn around the center of the Galaxy is more like the solar system. Stars, as well as the clouds of gas and dust, obey Kepler’s third law. Objects farther from the center take longer to complete an orbit around the Galaxy than do those closer to the center. In other words, stars (and interstellar matter) in larger orbits in the Galaxy trail behind those in smaller ones. This effect is called differential galactic rotation    .