For the first time, a much younger version of the Sun has been caught red-handed blowing bubbles in the galaxy, by astronomers using NASA\u2019s Chandra X-ray Observatory.<\/p>\n
The bubble \u2013 called an \u201castrosphere\u201d \u2013 completely surrounds the juvenile star. Winds from the star\u2019s surface are blowing up the bubble and filling it with hot gas as it expands into much cooler galactic gas and dust surrounding the star. The Sun has a similar bubble around it, which scientists call the heliosphere, created by the solar wind. It extends far beyond the planets in our solar system and protects Earth from cosmic radiation.<\/p>\n
This is the first image of an astrosphere astronomers have obtained around a star similar to the Sun. It shows slightly extended emission, rather than a single point of light as seen for other such stars.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have been studying our Sun\u2019s astrosphere for decades, but we can\u2019t see it from the outside,\u201d said Carey Lisse of Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, who led the study, which published [day of week] in the Astrophysical Journal. \u201cThis new Chandra result about a similar star\u2019s astrosphere teaches us about the shape of the Sun\u2019s, and how it has changed over billions of years as the Sun evolves and moves through the galaxy.\u201d<\/p>\n
The star is called HD 61005 and is located about 120 light-years from Earth, making it relatively close. HD 61005 has roughly the same mass and temperature as the Sun, but it is much younger with an age of about 100 million years, compared to the Sun\u2019s age of about 5 billion years.<\/p>\n
Because it is so young, HD 61005 has a much stronger wind of particles blowing from its surface that travels about 3 times faster and is about 25 times denser than the wind from the Sun. This amplifies the process of astrosphere bubble-blowing and mimics how our Sun was behaving several billion years ago.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are impacted by the Sun every day, not only through the light it gives off, but also by the wind it sends out into space that can affect our satellites and potentially astronauts traveling to the Moon or Mars,\u201d said co-author Scott Wolk of the Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian (CfA). \u201cThis image of the astrosphere around HD 61005 gives us important information about what the Sun\u2019s wind may have been like early in its evolution.\u201d<\/p>\n
Astronomers have nicknamed the HD 61005 star system the \u201cMoth\u201d because it is surrounded by large amounts of dust patterned similarly to the shape of a moth\u2019s wings when viewed through infrared telescopes. The wings are formed from material left behind after the formation of the star, similar to the Kuiper Belt in our own solar system. Observations of these wings with NASA\u2019s Hubble Space Telescope showed that the interstellar matter surrounding HD 61005 is about a thousand times denser than that around the Sun.<\/p>\n
Since the 1990s, astronomers have been trying to capture an image of an astrosphere around a Sun-like star. Chandra was able to detect the astrosphere around HD 61005 because it is producing X-rays as the stellar wind runs into cooler local interstellar medium dust and gas that surrounds the star. The dense local galactic environment, combined with Chandra\u2019s high-resolution X-ray vision, the strong stellar wind, and the star\u2019s proximity, all helped create a strong X-ray signal, allowing discovery of an astrosphere around HD 61005. It has a diameter about 200 times the distance from Earth to the Sun.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s a saying about a moth being drawn to a flame,\u201d said co-author Brad Snios, formerly of CfA and now at MITRE, a non-profit that participates in federally funded research. \u201cIn the case of HD 61005, the \u2018Moth\u2019 can\u2019t easily escape from the flame because it was born around it and might be sustained by a disk around it.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Sun not only likely passed through a phase of development similar to HD 61005 when it was younger, it also likely traveled through a denser region of dust and gas than where the Sun is currently located, strengthening the connection with HD 61005.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is amazing to think that our protective heliosphere would only extend out to the orbit of Saturn if we were in the part of the galaxy where the Moth is located, or, conversely, that the Moth would have an astrosphere 10 times wider larger than the Sun\u2019s if it were located here,\u201d Lisse said.<\/p>\n
HD 61005 is not visible from Earth with the unaided eye, but it is close enough that skywatchers could see it using binoculars.<\/p>\n
The first hints of X-ray emission from the Moth\u2019s central star were based on a brief, one-hour-long Chandra observation of HD 61005 in 2014. In 2021, astronomers observed HD 61005 for almost 19 hours, which allowed the detection of the extended astrospheric structure.<\/p>\n
NASA\u2019s Marshall Space Flight Center manages the Chandra program. The Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory\u2019s Chandra X-ray Center controls science operations from Cambridge, Massachusetts, and flight operations from Burlington, Massachusetts.<\/p>\n
Image credit: X-ray: NASA\/CXC\/John Hopkins Univ.\/C.M. Lisse et al.; Infrared: NASA\/ESA\/STIS; Optical: NSF\/NoirLab\/CTIO\/DECaPS2; Image Processing: NASA\/CXC\/SAO\/N. Wolk<\/p>\n
To learn more about Chandra, visit:<\/p>\n
https:\/\/science.nasa.gov\/chandra<\/a><\/p>\n Read more from NASA\u2019s Chandra X-ray Observatory<\/a><\/p>\n Learn more about the Chandra X-ray Observatory and its mission here:<\/p>\n https:\/\/www.nasa.gov\/chandra<\/a><\/p>\n https:\/\/chandra.si.edu<\/a><\/p>\n This release contains three main images, each offering a different take on the astrosphere surrounding a young star called HD 61005. An astrosphere is a wind-blown bubble full of gas and dust particles that encases a star as it pushes through interstellar space.<\/p>\n In this release, an optical image from the Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory in Chile shows HD 61005 in the context of its star field. Here, the star in question appears as a glowing, gleaming white dot surrounded by other glowing dots of similar and smaller sizes. The image is utterly packed with specks of light in shades of blue, white, gold, green, and red. At this distance, in an optical observation, the star\u2019s astrosphere is not discernible.<\/p>\n The second image is a composite, which presents a close-up of HD 61005 using infrared data from Hubble, and X-ray data from the Chandra X-ray Observatory. Here, the spherical star has a brilliant core bursting with white X-ray light. Ringing the white core is a neon purple glow; the astrosphere surrounding the star. A distinguishing feature of HD 61005 is a white, wedge-shaped tail with neon blue tips, which trails the fast-moving star. This tail is dusty material left behind after the star\u2019s formation. The wedge, or wing shape of the tail has earned the star the nickname \u2018Moth\u2019 by astronomers spying it through infrared telescopes.<\/p>\n The third image in this release is an artist\u2019s illustration of an astrosphere in action. Here, a large, pale purple ball soars from our right toward our left, into a misty brown cloud. The purple ball appears to be protected by a blue force field, which pushes the brown cloud aside as the ball dives in. In this illustration, the purple ball represents the astrosphere surrounding a star and the brown cloud is interstellar gas. The blue force field is a bow shock, a curved free-floating shock wave, similar to the sonic boom that travels in front of a supersonic plane. The bow shock is caused by the motion of the star and its astrosphere hurtling through space. This illustration features a series of faint lines representing wind patterns from HD 61005, but does not show the tail of debris found behind and beside HD 61005.<\/p>\n Megan Watzke
Chandra X-ray Center
Cambridge, Mass.
617-496-7998
mwatzke@cfa.harvard.edu<\/a><\/p>\n