Great Rift (astronomy)

This overexposed photo shows part of the Milky Way straddling the Great Rift, a dark lane of dust clouds that spans from the constellation Cygnus to Sagittarius.

In astronomy, the Great Rift (sometimes called the Dark Rift, or less commonly the Dark River), is an aggregation of overlapping, non-luminous, molecular dust clouds that lie between the Solar System and the Sagittarius Arm of the Milky Way galaxy. They form a dark lane through the starry path of the Milky Way which, seen from Earth, is a hazy band of white light, some 30° wide, arching across the night sky. These clouds are located about 800–1,000 parsecs (2,600–3,300 ly) from Earth.[1] The clouds are estimated to contain about 1 million solar masses of plasma and dust.[2]

Properties

To the naked eye, the Great Rift appears as a dark lane that divides the bright band of the Milky Way lengthwise, through about one-third of its extent, and is flanked by lanes of numerous stars.[2]

Starting at the constellation of Cygnus, where it is known as the Cygnus Rift or Northern Coalsack, the Great Rift stretches to Aquila; to Ophiuchus, where it broadens out; to Sagittarius, where it obscures the Galactic Center; and finally to Centaurus. One of the most important regions it obscures is the Cygnus OB2 association, a large cluster of young stars and one of the largest regions of star formation near Earth. Similar dark rifts can be seen in many edge-on galaxies, such as NGC 891 in Andromeda and NGC 4565 (the Needle Galaxy) in Coma Berenices.[3]

See also

Notes

  1. ↑ Green, Gregory M; Schlafly, Edward F; Finkbeiner, Douglas P; Rix, Hans-Walter; Martin, Nicolas; Burgett, William; Draper, Peter W; Flewelling, Heather; Hodapp, Klaus; Kaiser, Nicholas; Kudritzki, Rolf Peter; Magnier, Eugene; Metcalfe, Nigel; Price, Paul; Tonry, John; Wainscoat, Richard (2015). "A Three-Dimensional Map of Milky Way Dust". The Astrophysical Journal. 810: 25. arXiv:1507.01005. Bibcode:2015ApJ...810...25G. doi:10.1088/0004-637X/810/1/25.
  2. 1 2 "Great Rift: Dark area in the Milky Way". EarthSky Communications. 2010. Retrieved 2010-06-15.
  3. ↑ Pitts, Sam. "NGC 891 Edge on Galaxy (HV19)". Sams Astro. Retrieved 2009-04-25.

References

  • "The Great Rift". Encyclopædia Britannica Online. 2009. Retrieved 2009-04-25.
  • "Great Rift". Sci-Tech Dictionary:. Retrieved 2009-04-25.
  • Kaler, Jim. "The Milky Way - From STARS". University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Department of Astronomy. pp. Maps 2 and 5. Retrieved 2009-04-25.
  • Dark River, Wide Field by Rogelio Bernal Andreo, at APOD
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