Chandra captures first X-ray image of a sun-like star’s wind-driven bubble
Astronomers using NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory imaged the faint X-ray glow around HD 61005, a young sun‑like star about 120 light‑years away, revealing a wind‑blown bubble called an astrosphere—the first X-ray evidence of such a bubble around a star similar to the Sun. HD 61005 is ~100 million years old, and its stellar wind is roughly three times faster and 25 times denser than the Sun’s today, inflating a brighter astrosphere in a dense interstellar environment. The finding offers a rare glimpse into the early solar system’s conditions and how stellar winds shape planetary environments.
