Simulated image of LHB and tunnel connecting to the outside
Photo: Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics
In a new discovery that could reshape humanity’s understanding of interstellar space, a team of astronomers has found a plasma “tunnel” linking the local interstellar cloud with other star systems.
The newly discovered tunnel belongs to a giant hot gas structure with a radius spanning hundreds of light years and surrounding the solar system called the “Local Hot Bubble” (LHB).
It doesn’t stop there, this tunnel can connect to a nearby and even larger bubble.
Data from the eROSITA telescope
The above discovery was made thanks to the huge amount of data coming from the eROSITA telescope, the first X-ray observatory located outside the earth’s atmosphere.
The researchers successfully created a 3D model of the entire LHB, not only confirming some predicted features but also helping to find completely new things.
“What we don’t know is the existence of an interstellar tunnel towards the constellation Sagittarius,” said report co-author Michael Freyberg, an astronomer at the Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics (Germany). . In particular, the Sagittarius constellation is about 11 million light years from earth.
The existence of LHB was first mentioned 50 years ago. Astronomers think this bubble may have formed about 14 million years ago, when a string of supernovae exploded and blew away all the interstellar matter. The result is a vast void, with a diameter spanning 1,000 light years and enveloping our Solar System.
Thanks to the support of modern telescopes, a team of German experts confirmed that the LHB is real, and that the above tunnel is probably part of an interstellar medium network spread throughout the Milky Way.
