Arm of Perseus
The Perseus arm is a spiral arm of the Milky Way system . It is about 5,000 light years further from the center of the galaxy than the Orion arm , in which the solar system is located. This makes the Perseus arm the closest of the spiral arms that are further out than the Orion arm. The arm of Perseus is mainly visible near the constellation Perseus and there about 41,000 light years from the center of the galaxy.
In 2005 an international group of scientists succeeded in determining by far the most precise distance to the star formation region W3 (OH) in the Perseus arm. They were able to directly measure the distance of 6357 ± 130 light years using triangulation using the Very Long Baseline Array (VLBA). The measurement is based on a base length of approx. 8000 km at a radio frequency of 12 GHz .
Messier objects
The following Messier objects are at home in the Perseus arm:
- the Crab Nebula (M1)
- open star cluster M36
- open star cluster M37
- open star cluster M38
- open star cluster M52
- open star cluster M103