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On this page: INTERACTIVES and FIGURES – scroll down to see it all.
On this page: INTERACTIVES and FIGURES – scroll down to see it all.
2024: The Radcliffe Wave is oscillating
2024: The Radcliffe Wave is oscillating
Interactive Figures
Interactive Figures
Note: viewing the interactives on small screens is not recommended.
iPhone 15 models will require direct links provided in the captions.
A view of the Radcliffe Wave and its oscillatory pattern. This interactive figure (direct link) supports interactive panning, zooming, and rotation. The blue fuzzy dots show the current positions of the stellar clusters along the Radcliffe Wave. The light blue curve shows the traveling wave model first presented officially in a paper published in Nature on February 20, 2024. The magenta and green traces show the Wave’s minimum and maximum excursions above and below the plane of the Milky Way, separated by 180° in phase. The Sun is shown in yellow. The background image is an artist’s conception of the Solar neighborhood, as seen in WorldWide Telescope.
A spatial and kinematic view of the Solar neighborhood. This interactive figure (direct link) supports interactive panning, zooming, and rotation. Individual data layers can be toggled on/off by clicking on the layer in the legend on the right side of the figure. The most massive local star-forming regions spatially associated with the Radcliffe Wave are shown in red. The young stellar clusters are shown in blue (inliers opaque / outliers transparent), the Sun in yellow, and the best-fit-model in black. The upper Panel corrpeonds to a Spatial View, showing the position of the Radcliffe Wave. The lower Panel correponds to a Kinematic View, showing the vertical motion of the Radcliffe Wave.
Figures
Figures
The Radcliffe Wave is Waving. This image shows the Radcliffe Wave (blue points + white line) next to the Sun (yellow point) inside a cartoon model of our galaxy, the Milky Way, in the WorldWide Telescope software. Every little blue dot corresponds to a cluster of stars, containing several recently born baby stars. The white line is a theoretical model Konietzka and collaborators developed to explain the current shape and motion of the Radcliffe Wave. The magenta and green lines show how and to what extent the Radcliffe Wave will move forward in the future.
The Radcliffe Wave is Waving. Here we are looking at the Wave from the opposite side, such that we can see the center of the Milky Way in the background. Colors and symbols are the same as in the image to the left.
Comparison between a traveling and a standing wave. Selected phase snapshots are shown here. For the best experience, please view the online interactive version (direct link).
Left Panels: The evolution of the Radcliffe Wave (stellar cluster in blue, molecular clouds in red, the best-fit-model in black) with phase. The Sun is shown in yellow. The vertical motion the Radcliffe Wave is showing corresponds to a traveling wave. We show in purple (60°) and in green (240°) snapshots of the Wave's maximum excursion below and above the Galactic plane.
Right Panels: The evolution of the Radcliffe Wave starting from the best-fit-model in black if the Wave’s motion corresponded to a standing wave.
2020: Discovery of the Radcliffe Wave
2020: Discovery of the Radcliffe Wave
Interactive Figures
Interactive Figures
Note: viewing the interactives on small screens is not recommended.
iPhone 15 models will require direct links provided in the captions.
The Radcliffe Wave in 3D. This interactive 3D visualization of the Radcliffe Wave is available in the online version of the published Nature article. It was built using the plot.ly exporter plugin inside the glue visualization software. Click on any layer in the legend (at right) to turn it on and off, and see how the Radcliffe Wave compares to existing models for the Local Arm, as well as existing theories for the local arrangement of molecular gas, known as Gould's Belt. Analysis of the new 3D distribution of stellar nurseries indicates that the Radcliffe Wave is the Local Arm in the Solar neighborhood, and suggests that the Gould's Belt might be a projection effect, as the Wave contains many former Gould's Belt clouds!
The Radcliffe Wave researchers also analyzed in detail the 3D structure of individual nearby clouds. Each cluster of colored pixels (labeled by name) indicates an individual cloud. Click on any cloud to pull up its interactive distance map, and view the structure of dust along the line of sight in different regions of the cloud! This figure is powered by bokeh.
Figures
Figures
Explore the Radcliffe Wave in 3D in AAS WorldWide Telescope. Click here to launch an interactive 3D view of the Radcliffe Wave in WorldWide Telescope!
Explore the Radcliffe Wave in 3D in AAS WorldWide Telescope. Click here to launch an interactive 3D view of the Radcliffe Wave in WorldWide Telescope!
Explore the Radcliffe Wave in 2D in AAS WorldWide Telescope. Click here to launch an interactive 2D (on the sky) view of the Radcliffe Wave in WorldWide Telescope!
Explore the Radcliffe Wave in 2D in AAS WorldWide Telescope. Click here to launch an interactive 2D (on the sky) view of the Radcliffe Wave in WorldWide Telescope!
The Radcliffe Wave (red points) next to the Sun (yellow point) inside a cartoon model of our Galaxy in the WorldWide Telescope software. We are looking at the structure as if we are in the disk of the Milky Way. The structure undulates outside the disk of the Galaxy at least 500 light years -- hence its name, the Radcliffe "Wave".
The Radcliffe Wave (red points) next to the Sun (yellow point) inside a cartoon model of our Galaxy in the WorldWide Telescope software. We are looking down on the disk of the Galaxy in this view, where the structure appears incredibly straight.
The Radcliffe Wave (red points) next to the Sun (yellow point) inside a cartoon model of our Galaxy in the WorldWide Telescope software.
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