Chandra Detects Giant X-Ray Bubble Around Young Sun-Like Star HD 61005

The astronomers at the NASA Chandra X-ray Observatory have spotted a hot gas bubble being blown by a young Sun-like star. The star is HD 61005, and it is approximately 100 million years old and is found approximately 120 light-years away. The intense stellar wind has formed a bubble-shaped astrosphere around it, which is similar to the heliosphere of the Sun. This is the earliest astrosphere that is observed around a star similar to our Sun.

Stellar Wind and Bubble Observations

According to NASA, HD 61005 possesses a stellar wind which exceeds solar winds because its particles move three times faster and its particles reach a density which is twenty-five times greater than solar output. The strong stellar wind creates an extensive astrosphere, which produces gas heating to millions of degrees and generates an X-ray-emitting bubble that extends 200 astronomical units across. The star appears as a bright point in X-ray images, while its bubble X-ray emission occurs because of the high density that surrounds it.

Implications for the Early Solar System

Lisse states that this discovery shows how the bubble of the Sun has evolved over billions of years, and Wolk says that it demonstrates what the wind of the Sun used to be like in the beginning. The bubble of the Sun is now reaching a long way beyond all planets and enveloping the Earth with cosmic radiation. The analysis of the bubble around HD 61005 will enable scientists to improve the model of the nature of the development of this protective shell within the early solar system and the impact of space weather on the first planets.