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(Image credit: X-ray: NASA/CXC/Johns Hopkins Univ./ C.M. Lisse et al.; Infrared: NASA/ESA/STIS; Optical: NSF/NoirLab/CTIO/ DECaPS2)
fast realities
What it is: HD 61005, a sun-like star nicknamed the “Moth”
Where it is: About 117 light-years away in the constellation Puppis
When it was shared: Feb. 23, 2026
The sun orbits the center of the Galaxy covered in a protective bubble of its own making, called the heliosphere. And for the very first time, astronomers have actually found a comparable protective bubble forming around an
alien star.
A star called HD 61005 has actually simply been verified to have its own heliosphere, or “astrosphere.” And since HD 61005 is much younger than the sun (about 100 million years compared to 4.6 billion years), the discovery also offers astronomers a rare glimpse into what our home star may have looked like in its infancy.
This groundbreaking image uses X-ray data from NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory (purple and white in the image) alongside infrared (blue and white) and optical (red, green and blue) observations from other telescopes, including the Hubble Space Telescope and the Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory in Chile. Combining the data has enabled astronomers to capture a striking portrait of a stellar wind bubble in action.
A zoomed-in view of the’Moth’and its astrosphere (Image credit: X-ray: NASA/CXC/John Hopkins Univ./ C.M. Lisse et al.; Infrared: NASA/ESA/STIS; Image Processing: NASA/CXC/SAO/ N. Wolk)[19659011]At the center of the image, there’s a dazzling white X-ray core. Surrounding it is a neon-purple radiance marking the astrosphere itself.
Among HD 61005’s most distinguishing characteristics is a wedge-shaped dust tail routing behind it that appears like a set of wings. This particles, left over from the star’s development, has actually been swept backwards as the star speeds through area, and its uncommon shape has actually made HD 61005 the label the “Moth.”
“There’s a stating about a moth being drawn to a flame,” Brad Snios, a physicist previously from the Harvard & & Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, stated in a declaration“In the case of HD 61005, the ‘Moth’ can’t quickly get away from the flame due to the fact that it was born around it.”
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Though similar in mass and temperature to the sun, HD 61005 is far younger and more active. Its stellar winds are estimated to be about three times faster and 25 times denser than those currently emitted by the sun. If it replaced the sun in the solar system, then our heliosphere would be up to 10 times wider, according to NASA.
Capturing the first alien astrosphere has been an ongoing mission since the 1990s. The breakthrough was made possible because HD 61005’s powerful wind collides with an unusually dense region of interstellar material, generating X-rays detectable by Chandra.
It’s the first clue to what may have surrounded the early solar system billions of years ago — and perhaps how young planetary systems evolve in their cosmic neighborhoods.
See more Space Photos of the Week
Jamie Carter is a Cardiff, U.K.-based freelance science reporter and a routine factor to Live Science. He is the author of A Stargazing Program For Beginners and co-author of The Eclipse Effect, and leads global stargazing and eclipse-chasing trips. His work appears routinely in Space.com, Forbes, New Scientist, BBC Sky during the night, Sky & & Telescope, and other significant science and astronomy publications. He is likewise the editor of WhenIsTheNextEclipse.com.
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