The Radcliffe Wave is Oscillating

Ralf Konietzka; Alyssa A. Goodman; Catherine Zucker; Andreas Burkert; João Alves; Michael Foley; Cameren Swiggum; Maria Koller; Núria Miret-Roig

doi:10.1038/s41586-024-07127-3

The Radcliffe Wave is Oscillating

Ralf Konietzka (Corresponding author)
, Alyssa A. Goodman
, Catherine Zucker
, Andreas Burkert
, João Alves
, Michael Foley
, Cameren Swiggum
, Maria Koller
, Núria Miret-Roig

Department of Astrophysics

Publications: Contribution to journal › Article › Peer Reviewed

Abstract

Our Sun lies within 300 parsecs of the 2.7-kiloparsecs-long sinusoidal chain of dense gas clouds known as the Radcliffe Wave ¹. The structure’s wave-like shape was discovered using three-dimensional dust mapping, but initial kinematic searches for oscillatory motion were inconclusive ^2–7. Here we present evidence that the Radcliffe Wave is oscillating through the Galactic plane while also drifting radially away from the Galactic Centre. We use measurements of line-of-sight velocity ⁸ for ¹²CO and three-dimensional velocities of young stellar clusters to show that the most massive star-forming regions spatially associated with the Radcliffe Wave (including Orion, Cepheus, North America and Cygnus X) move as though they are part of an oscillating wave driven by the gravitational acceleration of the Galactic potential. By treating the Radcliffe Wave as a coherently oscillating structure, we can derive its motion independently of the local Galactic mass distribution, and directly measure local properties of the Galactic potential as well as the Sun’s vertical oscillation period. In addition, the measured drift of the Radcliffe Wave radially outwards from the Galactic Centre suggests that the cluster whose supernovae ultimately created today’s expanding Local Bubble ⁹ may have been born in the Radcliffe Wave.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	62-65
Number of pages	4
Journal	Nature
Volume	628
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-024-07127-3
Publication status	Published - 20 Feb 2024

Funding

We thank J. Carifio, S. Jeffreson, E. Koch, V. Semenov, G. Beane, M. Rugel, S. Meingast, A. Saydjari, J. Speagle, C. Laporte, S. Bialy, J. Großschedl, T. O’Neill, L. Randall and B. Benjamin for useful discussions. The visualization, exploration and interpretation of data presented in this work were made possible using the glue visualization software, supported under NSF grant numbers OAC-1739657 and CDS&E:AAG-1908419. A.A.G. and C.Z. acknowledge support by NASA ADAP grant 80NSSC21K0634 ‘Knitting Together the Milky Way: An Integrated Model of the Galaxy’s Stars, Gas, and Dust’. C.Z. acknowledges that support for this work was provided by NASA through the NASA Hubble Fellowship grant HST-HF2-51498.001 awarded by the Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI), which is operated by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy, Inc., for NASA, under contract NAS5-26555. J.A. was co-funded by the European Union (ERC, ISM-FLOW, 101055318). Views and opinions expressed are, however, those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or the European Research Council. Neither the European Union nor the granting authority can be held responsible for them. A.B. was supported by the Excellence Cluster ORIGINS which is funded by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG; German Research Foundation) under Germany’s Excellence Strategy – EXC-2094-390783311.

Austrian Fields of Science 2012

103004 Astrophysics

Keywords

Astrophysics - Astrophysics of Galaxies

Access to Document

10.1038/s41586-024-07127-3

Cite this

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title = "The Radcliffe Wave is Oscillating",

abstract = "Our Sun lies within 300 parsecs of the 2.7-kiloparsecs-long sinusoidal chain of dense gas clouds known as the Radcliffe Wave 1. The structure{\textquoteright}s wave-like shape was discovered using three-dimensional dust mapping, but initial kinematic searches for oscillatory motion were inconclusive 2–7. Here we present evidence that the Radcliffe Wave is oscillating through the Galactic plane while also drifting radially away from the Galactic Centre. We use measurements of line-of-sight velocity 8 for 12CO and three-dimensional velocities of young stellar clusters to show that the most massive star-forming regions spatially associated with the Radcliffe Wave (including Orion, Cepheus, North America and Cygnus X) move as though they are part of an oscillating wave driven by the gravitational acceleration of the Galactic potential. By treating the Radcliffe Wave as a coherently oscillating structure, we can derive its motion independently of the local Galactic mass distribution, and directly measure local properties of the Galactic potential as well as the Sun{\textquoteright}s vertical oscillation period. In addition, the measured drift of the Radcliffe Wave radially outwards from the Galactic Centre suggests that the cluster whose supernovae ultimately created today{\textquoteright}s expanding Local Bubble 9 may have been born in the Radcliffe Wave.",

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N2 - Our Sun lies within 300 parsecs of the 2.7-kiloparsecs-long sinusoidal chain of dense gas clouds known as the Radcliffe Wave 1. The structure’s wave-like shape was discovered using three-dimensional dust mapping, but initial kinematic searches for oscillatory motion were inconclusive 2–7. Here we present evidence that the Radcliffe Wave is oscillating through the Galactic plane while also drifting radially away from the Galactic Centre. We use measurements of line-of-sight velocity 8 for 12CO and three-dimensional velocities of young stellar clusters to show that the most massive star-forming regions spatially associated with the Radcliffe Wave (including Orion, Cepheus, North America and Cygnus X) move as though they are part of an oscillating wave driven by the gravitational acceleration of the Galactic potential. By treating the Radcliffe Wave as a coherently oscillating structure, we can derive its motion independently of the local Galactic mass distribution, and directly measure local properties of the Galactic potential as well as the Sun’s vertical oscillation period. In addition, the measured drift of the Radcliffe Wave radially outwards from the Galactic Centre suggests that the cluster whose supernovae ultimately created today’s expanding Local Bubble 9 may have been born in the Radcliffe Wave.

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The Radcliffe Wave is Oscillating

Abstract

Funding

Austrian Fields of Science 2012

Keywords

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