An Etymological Dictionary of Astronomy and Astrophysics
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A minor → spiral arm of the → Milky Way Galaxy close to which the → Sun is located. It is some 3,500 → light-years across and approximately 10,000 light-years in length. The solar system lies close to the inner rim of this spiral arm, about halfway along its length. Its name derives from the fact that the stars closest to the Sun which actually lie within the arm are in the constellation → Orion. Its other designations are → Local Arm, → Local Spur, → Orion Bridge, → Orion Spur, and → Orion-Cygnus Arm.

→ Orion; → arm.