In the News
To Serve Better—Speak, Memory
Alaskan Native poet Joan Naviyuk Kane is teaching her two sons, John and George, the Qawiaraq dialect of the Inupiaq language. Photo by Stephanie Mitchell/Harvard Staff PhotographerPoet Joan Naviyuk Kane RI '20 is fiercely dedicated to sustaining her Alaskan Inupiac language: "I think being attentive to loss doesn’t have to be devastating. It can really inform people to take action and to participate."
Something Appears to Have Collided with the Milky Way and Created a Huge Wave in the Galactic Plane
Visualization of the Radcliffe Wave. The wave is marked by red dots. The Sun is represented by a yellow dot to show our proximity to this huge structure. Courtesy of Alyssa Goodman/Harvard UniversityAn enormous wave has been discovered in the Milky Way that may have formed as a result of a collision with a massive mystery object—potentially a clump of dark matter.
Astronomers Discover Huge Gaseous Wave Holding Milky Way's Newest Stars
A side-on visualisation shows the undulating nature of the Radcliffe Wave and the position of the sun. Photograph: Harvard UniversityAstronomers have discovered a gigantic, undulating wave of dust and gas where newborn stars are forged over a 50 million billion mile stretch of the Milky Way.
Astronomers Discover Giant Wave-shaped Structure in the Milky Way
This image shows the Radcliffe Wave, taken from the World Wide Telescope, overlaid on an artist's illustration of the Milky Way and our sun. Courtesy of Alyssa Goodman/Harvard UniversityOur solar system resides in one of the Milky Way galaxy's spiral arms, and for the first time, astronomers have realized we're close to a giant wave-shaped gaseous structure that connects star nurseries.
Vast "Star Nursery" Region Found in Our Galaxy
A visualisation of the Radcliffe Wave - one of the largest coherent structures in the Milky Way. Image courtesy of Alyssa Goodman/Harvard UniversityAstronomers have discovered a vast structure in our galaxy, made up of many interconnected "nurseries" where stars are born.
An Interstellar Ribbon of Clouds in the Sun’s Backyard
The clouds that make up the Radcliffe Wave (highlighted in red) pass within just 500 light years of our sun (yellow). Wave data has been superimposed on an artist's rendering of the Milky Way galaxy as it appears in a screen shot taken from WorldWide Telescope. Image courtesy of Alyssa Goodman, Harvard UniversityA 9,000-light-year-long ribbon of matter undulates through our sun’s interstellar neighborhood, made of hundreds of different clouds of dust and gas—the largest such structure of interacting nebulae yet described. Its discovery re-draws the map of our corner of the Milky Way.
Harvard Scientists Find Wave of Stellar Nurseries in Milky Way
Astronomers at Harvard’s Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study have discovered a massive wave of stellar nurseries located near the sun, one of the largest coherent gaseous structures ever observed in the Milky Way.
Behind the Radcliffe Wave, Creative Inspiration
Joao Alves speaking at Radcliffe about the rise of the Milky Way. Photo by Kevin Grady/Radcliffe InstituteArtist Anna Von Mertens’s vision guided astrophysicist João Alves and colleagues' discovery of the Radcliffe Wave.
The Giant in Our Stars
In this illustration, the "Radcliffe Wave" data is overlaid on an image of the Milky Way galaxy. Image from the WorldWide Telescope, courtesy of Alyssa GoodmanInterconnected stellar nurseries, named the Radcliffe Wave, form the largest gaseous structure ever observed in the Milky Way galaxy.
Shawon Kinew
Photo by Stu RosnerRadcliffe Professor Shawon Kinew is interested in how early modern sculptors pushed the boundaries of what sculpture should be able to do.