20
Tracing the Spiral Arms
•Arms NOT  obvious if you look at:
–Old objects like the sun
•Arms ARE obvious if you look at:
–Maps of gas clouds
•21 cm Hydrogen
•Radio maps of CO
–Far infrared observations of dust
–Young stars
•O, B stars
•“HII” ionized hydrogen regions surrounding O,B stars
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–Clouds somehow form in arms , then dissipate between them
–Short lived objects only get a short distance from their places of birth
•O stars, Lifetime = few million years,  at 250 km/s Þ500 pc
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