The Perseus Arm is one of two major spiral arms of the Milky Way galaxy. The second major arm is called Scutum–Centaurus Arm. Perseus Arm begins from the distal end of the long Milky Way.
The Milky Way is a barred spiral galaxy with two major arms and a number of minor arms or spurs. The Perseus Spiral Arm, with a radius of approximately 10,700 parsecs, is located between the minor Cygnus and Carina–Sagittarius Arms. It is named after its proximity to the constellation Perseus.
There is speculation that the local spur known as the Orion–Cygnus Arm, which includes the Solar System and Earth and is located inside of Perseus Arm, is a branch of it, but this is unconfirmed.
The Perseus Spiral arm contains a number of Messier objects:
- The Crab Nebula (M1)
- Open Cluster M36
- Open Cluster M37
- Open Cluster M38
- Open Cluster M52
- Open Cluster M103.
Famous quotes containing the word arm:
“Summoning a child’s voice from a webfoot stone,
Never never oh never to regret the bugle I wore
On my cleaving arm as I blasted in a wave.
Now shown and mostly bare I would lie down,
Lie down, like down and live
As quiet as a bone.”
—Dylan Thomas (1914–1953)