A POSSIBLE EXTENSION OF THE SCUTUM-CENTAURUS ARM INTO THE OUTER SECOND QUADRANT

Abstract

Combining H i data from the Canadian Galactic Plane Survey and CO data from the Milky Way Imaging Scroll Painting project, we have identified a new segment of a spiral arm between Galactocentric radii of 15 and 19 kpc that apparently lies beyond the Outer Arm in the second Galactic quadrant. Over most of its length, the arm is 400–600 pc thick in z. The new arm appears to be the extension of the distant arm recently discovered by Dame & Thaddeus as well as the Scutum–Centaurus Arm into the outer second quadrant. Our current survey identified a total of 72 molecular clouds with masses on the order of 102–104 M☉ that probably lie in the new arm. When all of the available data from the CO molecular clouds are fit, the best-fitting spiral model gives a pitch angle of 93 ± 07.