Gould Belt

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
Mesh map of the inner Gould Belt created from Gaia observatory data

The Gould Belt is a local ring of stars in the

star-forming regions of the local Orion Arm, to which the Sun belongs. The relative proximity of these star-forming regions spurred the Gould Belt Survey
project to determine what caused them.

It was long speculated that the belt was a physical structure in the galactic disk, but data from the Gaia survey indicate that several of its star-forming regions belong instead to the separate Radcliffe wave and Split linear structures in the Orion Arm, and that the circular appearance of the belt results mostly from the projection of these structures onto the celestial sphere.[2]

The belt contains bright, young stars which formed about 30 to 50 million years ago in several constellations.

Crux (the Southern Cross), Carina, Vela, Puppis, Canis Major, and Orion
.

Serpens south
is often included in Gould Belt surveys, but is not formally part of the Gould Belt due to its greater distance.

A theory proposed around 2009 suggests that the Gould Belt formed about 30 million years ago when a blob of dark matter collided with the molecular cloud in our region. There is also evidence for similar Gould belts in other galaxies.[6][7]

See also

References

  1. doi:10.1093/mnras/stt561
    . Retrieved 28 January 2023.
  2. S2CID 256822920
    .
  3. ^ Sir Patrick Moore, ed. (2002) [1987]. Astronomy Encyclopædia (Revised ed.). Great Britain: Philip's. p. 164.
  4. ^ "The Gould Belt". The GAIA Study Report. Archived from the original on 2003-08-04. Retrieved 2006-07-18.
  5. ^ "Gould Belt". The Encyclopedia of Astrobiology Astronomy and Spaceflight. Retrieved 2006-07-18.
  6. ^ "Orion's dark secret: Violence shaped the night sky", New Scientist, 21 Nov. 2009, pp. 42–5.
  7. S2CID 16173683. Archived from the original
    on 2012-12-08.

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Gould Belt.
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Gould_Belt&oldid=1193806506"