Alyssa A. Goodman

Harvard University, Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian

Research field

Molecular clouds, star formation and data visualization

Alyssa Goodman studies the molecular clouds in which stars form and how such data can be seen in three dimensions. A 2020 study of which she is the third author used the reddening of starlight by dust and Gaia distances to map the clouds near the Sun in 3D. It showed that most nearby star-forming regions belong to one narrow, undulating band of gas 2.7 kpc long, the Radcliffe Wave. The unit uses this result to show where the molecular clouds of its first section lie in our part of the Milky Way.

In the masterclass

Section 1 on molecular clouds and star formation ends with this map of the star-forming clouds around the Sun.

The research is presented in Unit 7: The Lives and Deaths of Stars, in a research spotlight box that explains the result at the level of the unit and links it to the physics you have just learned.

The paper

A Galactic-scale gas wave in the solar neighbourhood