What is The 'Radcliffe Wave'?

Harvard astronomers have discovered that this giant wave-shaped chain of gaseous clouds, giving birth to clusters of stars, not only looks like a wave, but also moves like one

Image Credit: Ralf Konietzka, Alyssa Goodman, and WorldWide Telescope

In 2018, during his fellowship at Radcliffe, University of Vienna professor João Alves collaborated with Catherine Zucker, then a Ph.D. student at Harvard's Center for Astrophysics, and Alyssa Goodman, Robert Wheeler Willson Professor of Applied Astronomy, to chart the 3D coordinates of stellar nurseries in the vicinity of the sun.