Local Bubble facts for kids
The Local Bubble is a huge, empty space in our galaxy, the Milky Way. It's like a giant bubble where there's much less gas and dust than in other parts of space. Our own Solar System, with Earth and all the planets, is right inside this Local Bubble!
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What is the Local Bubble?
The Local Bubble is a massive, bubble-shaped area in space. It's found in the Orion Arm, which is one of the spiral arms of our home galaxy, the Milky Way. Think of it as a big, empty cave in the middle of a dense forest. This "cave" is at least 300 light-years wide. A light-year is how far light travels in one year, which is a super long distance!
Inside the Local Bubble, the gas is very thin. There are only about 0.05 atoms of hydrogen in every cubic centimeter. This is much less than the average for the rest of the Milky Way, which has about 0.5 atoms per cubic centimeter. This means the Local Bubble is about ten times emptier than the space around it!
How Did the Local Bubble Form?
Scientists believe the Local Bubble was created by powerful explosions called supernovae. Supernovae are the explosions of very large stars at the end of their lives. These explosions are incredibly powerful and can push away all the gas and dust around them, creating a huge empty space.
These supernovae likely happened between ten and twenty million years ago. The gas inside the Local Bubble is still very hot and excited from these explosions. Because it's so hot, it gives off X-rays. Scientists can study these X-rays to learn more about the Local Bubble and how it formed.
What's Inside the Local Bubble?
Even though the Local Bubble is mostly empty, it does contain some things. Our own Solar System is located within a smaller cloud of gas inside the Local Bubble, called the Local Interstellar Cloud. There's also another small cloud nearby called the G-Cloud. So, while the bubble is mostly empty, it's not completely bare!
Images for kids
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Model of space near the Sun: (grey) Local Bubble, (magenta) molecular clouds, (cyan) Loop I Bubble.
See also
In Spanish: Burbuja Local para niños
