[9] The 1 Gyr population have been employed because they are significantly more-evolved objects than the gas in HMSFRs tracing the Local Arm.
Investigations have been carried out to compare both the stellar density and gas distribution along the Local Arm.
Researchers have found a marginally significant arm-like stellar overdensity close to the Local Arm, identified with the HMSFRs, especially in the region of 90° ≤ l ≤ 190°.
[8] The researchers have concluded that the Local Arm segment is associated only with gas and star-forming clouds, showing a significant overdensity of stars.
These differences in pitch angles and offsets between the stellar and HMSFR-defined spiral arms are consistent with the expectation that star formation lags behind gas compression in a spiral density wave that lasts longer than the typical star formation timescale of 107 − 108 years.