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Credit & Copyright: X-ray:
NASA /
CXC /
Johns Hopkins Univ. /
C.M. Lisse et al.;
Infrared:
NASA /
ESA /
STIS;
Optical: NSF /
NoirLab /
CTIO /
DECaPS2
Processing: NASA / CXC / SAO / N. Wolk - Text: Cecilia Chirenti (NASA GSFC, UMCP, CRESST II)
Explanation:
Do young stars blow bubbles?
The larger view shows a stellar field observed with the
Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory
in Chile, and the inset highlights
HD 61005,
a star like our Sun,
only 120 light-years
away.
Much
younger
than the Sun, at just about 100 million years old, it blows a fast and dense
stellar wind
that pushes out the cooler dust and gas that
surrounds it,
forming a bubble called an astrosphere.
The star-blown bubble was
detected
with the
Chandra
X-ray Observatory,
and it has a diameter roughly 200 times the
Earth-Sun distance.
Our Sun has a bubble too, called the
heliosphere,
which
protects the planets from
cosmic
radiation.
Also shown in the inset is
debris
left behind from star formation, observed by
Hubble.
The debris appears as
wings,
giving the star its nickname: the
Moth.
Processing: NASA / CXC / SAO / N. Wolk - Text: Cecilia Chirenti (NASA GSFC, UMCP, CRESST II)
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Based on Astronomy Picture
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Publications with keywords: star
Publications with words: star
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