3D model of the solar neighborhood. The color bar represents the temperature of the LHB as colored on the surface of the LHB. The direction of the Galactic Center (CG) and Galactic North (N) is shown in the lower right corner.
Mysterious tunnel will form a channel with the neighboring superbubble in Centaurus, where Proxima Centauri, the closest star to the Sun, is located. eRosita Telescope provides “the cleanest X-ray view of the sky to date”.
A team of astrophysicists has detected a “interstellar tunnel” that connects our Solar System to a structure in the constellation Centaurus, reveals new data from the eROSITA All-Sky Survey space telescope.
The mysterious tunnel will be a canal between the Local Hot Bubble (LHB)a 1,000 light-year wide area made of hot, low-density gas that surrounds the Solar System, and a neighboring superbubble in Centauruswhere Proxima Centauri, the closest star to the Sun, is located.
The LHB has been known for decades and its study has already helped explain the presence of low-energy X-rays in the space environment. But the recent 3D mapping of this bubble, carried out by researchers at the Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics, revealed a pattern of hot and cold spots within the bubble, the result of ancient supernova explosions.
This variability in temperatures allows us to understand how these events helped shape and expand the bubble.
O eROSITA telescopelocated 1.5 million kilometers from Earth, was fundamental to the research, as its position allows it to observe Space without the interference of the Earth’s geocrown. Based on the data this provided, scientists analyzed 2,000 regions of the Milky Way’s hemisphere, contrasting the density of the LHB with the gas from cold, dense molecular clouds at its edges, which allowed them to create the detailed three-dimensional map of the bubble.
The data obtained indicates that LHB has uneven temperatures between the north and south of the Galaxy — the north is relatively colder. Furthermore, the map revealed that the bubble extends towards the poles of the galactic hemisphere. But the study’s biggest surprise was the detection of what could be an interstellar tunnel to Centaurus, a structure that generates a vacuum in the coldest interstellar medium.
“The data released this year provides the cleanest X-ray view of the sky to date, making it the perfect instrument to study the LHB,” says Michael YeungMax Planck researcher and lead author of the study in Astronomy & Astrophysics on November 5th.
In addition to the LHB, researchers compiled a census of supernova remnants, superbubbles and interstellar dust, which they integrated into an interactive 3D model of the solar system’s cosmic neighborhood.
“Another interesting fact is that the Sun must have entered the LHB a few million years ago, a very short period compared to the age of the Sun [4,6 mil milhões de anos]”, said Gabriele Ponti, one of the authors of the study: “it is pure coincidence that the Sun appears to occupy a relatively central position in the LHB as we continually move through the Milky Way”, he says, in Phys.org.
The Centaurus tunnel may thus be part of a network of hot gas channels that traverse cold interstellar space. This network, according to scientists, is maintained by stellar winds and supernovae, in a phenomenon known as stellar feedbackwhich runs through the Milky Way and contributes to its structural shape.
More studies are needed on the mysterious structure. For now, it is possible to “navigate” it on the new 3D interactive map, available.
