64: The Local Arm of the Milky Way and the Sun's Changing Place. Dr. Ken Croswell discusses new revelations about the Milky Way, a spiral galaxy. The Sun is in the local arm, also called the Orion arm, which is a vigorous star nursery containing the Orion Neb

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John Batchelor

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🗓️ 8 November 2025

⏱️ 14 minutes

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Summary

The Local Arm of the Milky Way and the Sun's Changing Place. Dr. Ken Croswell discusses new revelations about the Milky Way, a spiral galaxy. The Sun is in the local arm, also called the Orion arm, which is a vigorous star nursery containing the Orion Nebula. Previously considered a minor spur, the local arm is now known to be substantial, extending at least 26,000 light-years. Observations rely on maser parallaxes measured by radio telescopes and precise data from the optical Gaia spacecraft. The Sun is not a permanent resident of this arm.

Transcript

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0:00.0	What truly matters.
0:01.6	At mega food, it's the power of plants and nourishing soil and quality ingredients for their supplements.
0:07.5	They do what matters to them, so you can do what matters to you.
0:10.8	Being present, saying yes, maybe even taking some you time to listen to your favorite podcast.
0:16.5	And always making the most of each moment, big and small.
0:20.9	Mega food, supplements for what matters.
0:29.9	This is CBS Eye on the World with John Bachelor.
0:34.6	Here's John Bachelor.
0:36.8	This is CBS Eye on the World. I'm John Batchel. I welcome Dr. Ken Croswell, author of The Alchemy of the Heavens,
0:44.1	Searching for Meaning and the Milky Way, to take us to the Milky Way, a galactic enterprise can as long
0:52.5	admired as beautiful, and he now writes in the proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, a revelation
1:00.6	about the Milky Way, about our place in it, our solar system.
1:05.2	Ken, a very good evening to you.
1:06.6	The Milky Way is the spiral galaxy.
1:09.0	But to do some history, the revelations of spiral galaxy
1:13.0	you date to the mid-19th century, the whirlpool galaxy. And that was some time before we could
1:19.5	perceive our own galaxy because we're inside that spill of stars across the sky. What did the
1:27.0	whirlpool galaxy teach us? What does it mean to be a
1:30.3	spiral galaxy? Good evening to you. Good evening, John. The Whirlpool galaxy is a stunning
1:36.5	spiral galaxy. It's still one of the most beautiful galaxies we know. And there's a picture of a great
1:42.6	picture from Hubble that appears in my article in the
1:45.5	proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. We discovered a spiral structure in 1845, or I should say
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