Star Formation Regions, Molecular Clouds
A 3D map of the most important star formation regions / molecular clouds within about 6,500 light years.
The Star Formation Handbooks (Volume I, Northern Sky, and Volume II, Southern Sky), published by the Astronomical Society of the Pacific, review the most important star formation regions / molecular clouds within about 6500 light years. The study "A compendium of distances to molecular clouds in the Star Formation Handbook" Catherine Zucker, Joshua S. Speagle, Edward F. Schlafly, Gregory M. Green, Douglas P. Finkbeiner, Alyssa Goodman, and João Alves, Astronomy and Astrophysics, Vol 633, A51, 2020 derived distances to the clouds with a typical uncertainty of about 5%. This 3D map uses the coordinate and distance data from Table A.1 in the paper (retrieved from the Strasbourg astronomical Data Center / CDS.
The base grid is parallel to the galactic plane, and lies 632 light years below the galactic plane. The small yellow circle in the base grid is centered on the Sun, and has a radius of 750 light years. The inner red circle centered on the Sun has a radius of 5000 light years, and the outer red circle (seen only in part) has a radius of 10,000 light years. The bitmap is the relevant "zoomed-in" portion of a modified version of the European Space Agency (ESA) 2025 map of the Milky Way. The colors are arbitrary, chosen to help distinguish between the Clouds.
Click here for a table of the data used to generate this view.
Star Formation Regions, Molecular Clouds Within 5000 Light Years
A 3D map of most important star formation regions / molecular clouds within 5000 light years (a subset of the map above).
The base grid is parallel to the galactic plane, and lies 632 light years below the galactic plane. The small yellow circle in the base grid is centered on the Sun, and has a radius of 750 light years. The larger red circle centered on the Sun has a radius of 5000 light years. The bitmap is the relevant "zoomed-in" portion of a modified version of the European Space Agency (ESA) 2025 map of the Milky Way. The colors are arbitrary, chosen to help distinguish between the Clouds.
Click here for a table of the data used to generate this view.
Star Formation Regions, Molecular Clouds Within 2500 Light Years
A 3D map of most important star formation regions / molecular clouds within 2500 light years (a subset of the map above).
The base grid is parallel to the galactic plane, and lies 632 light years below the galactic plane. The second grid above the base grid is the actual galactic plane. The small yellow circle in the base grid is centered on the Sun, and has a radius of 750 light years. The bitmap is the relevant "zoomed-in" portion of a modified version of the European Space Agency (ESA) 2025 map of the Milky Way. The colors are arbitrary, chosen to help distinguish between the Clouds.
Click here for a table of the data used to generate this view.
Star Clusters and Nebulae
