Orion Arm

The Orion Arm is a minor spiral arm of the Milky Way

Galaxy that is 3,500 light-years (1,100 parsecs) across and
approximately 10,000 light-years (3,100 parsecs) in
length,[2] containing the Solar System, including Earth. It is
also referred to by its full name, the Orion–Cygnus Arm
(not to be confused with the outer end of the Norma Arm
the Cygnus Arm), as well as Local Arm, Orion Bridge,
and formerly, the Local Spur and Orion Spur.

The arm is named for the Orion Constellation, which is one

of the most prominent constellations of Northern
Hemisphere winter (Southern Hemisphere summer). Some
of the brightest stars and most famous celestial objects of
the constellation (e.g. Betelgeuse, Rigel, the three stars of
Orion's Belt, the Orion Nebula) are within it as shown on
the interactive map below.

The arm is between the Carina–Sagittarius Arm (the local

portions of which are toward the Galactic Center) and the
Perseus Arm (the local portion of which is the main outer- Observed structure of the Milky Way's spiral arms[1]
most arm and one of two major arms of the galaxy).

Long thought to be a minor structure, namely a "spur" between the two arms
mentioned, evidence was presented in mid 2013 that the Orion Arm might be a branch
of the Perseus Arm, or possibly an independent arm segment.[3]

Within the arm, the Solar System is close to its inner rim, in a relative cavity in the
arm's interstellar medium known as the Local Bubble, about halfway along the arm's
length, approximately 8,000 parsecs (26,000 light-years) from the Galactic Center.

Recently, the parallax and proper motion of more than 30 methanol (6.7-GHz) and
water (22-GHz) masers in high-mass star-forming regions within a few kiloparsecs of Milky Way centre from Sinai, Egypt
the Sun were measured. Measurement accuracy was better than ±10% and even 3%,
the best parallax measurement in the BeSSeL project (Bar and Spiral Structure Legacy
Survey). The accuracy locations of interstellar masers in HMSFRs (high-mass star-forming regions) have been shown that the
Local Arm appears to be an orphan segment of an arm between the Sagittarius and Perseus arms that wraps around less than a
quarter of the Milky Way. The segment has the length of ~20,000 ly and the width of ~3,000 ly with the pitch angle from
10.1° ± 2.7° to 11.6° ± 1.8°. These results reveal that the Local Arm is larger than previously thought, and both its pitch angle
and star formation rate are comparable to those of the Galaxy’s major spiral arms. The Local Arm is reasonably referred to as
the fifth feature in the Milky Way. The “spur” interpretation may be incorrect.[4][5][6][7][8]

To understand the form of the Local Arm between the Sagittarius and Perseus arms, the stellar density of a specific population
of stars with about 1 Gyr of age between 90° ≤ l ≤ 270° have been mapped using the Gaia DR2.[9] The 1 Gyr population have
been employed because they are significantly more-evolved objects than the gas in HMSFRs tracing the Local Arm.
Investigations have been carried out to compare both the stellar density and gas distribution along the Local Arm. Researchers
have found a marginally significant arm-like stellar overdensity close to the Local Arm, identified with the HMSFRs especially
in the region of 90° ≤ l ≤ 190°.[10] They have concluded that the Local Arm is the arm segment associated with only the gas
and star-forming clouds, with a significant stellar overdensity. Additionally, they have found that the pitch angle of the stellar
arm is slightly larger than the gas-defined arm, and also there is an offset between gas-defined and stellar arm. The offset and
different pitch angles between the stellar and HMSFR-defined spiral arms are consistent with the expectation that star
formation lags the gas compression in a spiral density wave lasting longer than the typical star formation timescale of 107 −
108 years.[11]

Messier objects
The Orion Arm contains a number of Messier objects:

The Butterfly Cluster (M6)

The Ptolemy Cluster (M7)
Open Cluster M23 A depiction of the view from inside the Orion Arm
Open Cluster M25 into the Milky Way.
The Dumbbell Nebula (M27)
Open Cluster M29
Open Cluster M34
Open Cluster M35
Open Cluster M39
Winnecke 4 (M40)
Open Cluster M41
The Orion Nebula (M42)
The De Mairan's Nebula (M43)
The Beehive Cluster (M44)
The Pleiades (M45)
Open Cluster M46
Open Cluster M47
Open Cluster M48
Open Cluster M50
The Ring Nebula (M57)
Open Cluster M67
M73
The Little Dumbbell Nebula
(M76)
Diffuse Nebula M78
Open Cluster M93
The Owl Nebula (M97)

The shape of the Orion Arm[12]

Interactive maps

Orion and neighboring arms (clickable map)

The nearest nebulae and star clusters (clickable map)

Other maps

See also
Galactic disc
Gould Belt
Jon Lomberg's Milky Way painting used as background
for Kepler Mission diagram, showing the Sun's location
on the Orion Spur
Local Bubble
Loop I Bubble
List of Messier objects
List of nearest stars and brown dwarfs

References
1. See the "Spiral Arms" part of this (https://web.archive.or Close up on the Orion Arm, with major stellar associations
g/web/20120326160806/http://planetquest.jpl.nasa.gov/ (yellow), nebulae (red) and dark nebulae (grey) around the
system/interactable/7/index.html)NASA animation for Local Bubble.
details
2. Harold Spencer Jones, T. H. Huxley, Proceedings of
the Royal Institution of Great Britain, Royal Institution of
Great Britain, v. 38–39
 3. Earth's Milky Way Neighborhood Gets More Respect (http://www.nrao.edu/pr/2013/localarm/), National Radio
Astronomy Observatory, Dave Finley, 3 June 2013
4. Reid, Mark; Zheng, Xing-Wu (2020). A New Map of the Milky Way (https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/
a-new-map-of-the-milky-way/). Vol. April. Scientific American.
5. Xu, Y., Reid, M. (https://ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2016SciA....2E0878X/abstract), Xu, Y., Reid, M., Dame, T.,
et al. 2016, SciA, 2, e1600878
6. Xu ,Y., Li, J. J., Reid (https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/0004-637X/769/1/15), Xu ,Y., Li, J. J., Reid, M.
J., et al. 2013,.ApJ, 769, 15.
7. Reid, M. J., Menten (https://ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2019ApJ...885..131R/abstract), Reid, M. J., Menten, K.
M., Brunthaler, A., et al. 2019, ApJ, 885,18
8. Hirota,T., Nagayama,T. (https://doi.org/10.1093/pasj/psaa018), Hirota,T., Nagayama,T., Honma,M., et al. 2020,
PASJ,72,50
9. Miyachi1, Y. (https://ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2019ApJ...882...48M/abstract), Miyachi1, Y., Sakai, N.,
Kawata, D., et al.2019,ApJ, 882,48
10. Hirota, T. (https://doi.org/10.1093/pasj/psaa018), Hirota, T., Nagayama, T., Honma, M., et al. 2020, PASJ,72,50
11. Shen, j., and Zheng, X. (http://www.raa-journal.org/raa/index.php/raa), Shen, j., and Zheng, X., 2020, RAA,
Vol.20, No.10,159
12. Vázquez, Ruben A.; May, Jorge; Carraro, Giovanni; Bronfman, Leonardo; Moitinho, André; Baume, Gustavo
(January 2008). "Spiral Structure in the Outer Galactic Disk. I. The Third Galactic Quadrant". The
Astrophysical Journal. 672 (2): 930–939. arXiv:0709.3973 (https://arxiv.org/abs/0709.3973).
Bibcode:2008ApJ...672..930V (https://ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2008ApJ...672..930V). doi:10.1086/524003
(https://doi.org/10.1086%2F524003). S2CID 55908842 (https://api.semanticscholar.org/CorpusID:55908842).

External links
Messier Objects in the Milky Way (SEDS) (http://messier.seds.org/more/mw_m.html)
A 3D map of the Milky Way Galaxy (http://www.3dgalaxymap.com/)

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