A team of scientists from the Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics has discovered a “interstellar tunnel“. This tunnel, detected thanks to eROSITA X-ray telescopeis not a shortcut to space-time as it appears in science fiction films.
“It is simply a connection between two supernova remnants or superbubbles filled with hot gas“, says Michael Yeung, one of the authors of the study, in statements to BBC World.
Our solar system resides in a region called Local hot bubble (LHB), a hot gas zone with an extremely low density, a temperature of one million degrees Kelvin and a density of less than 0.01 particles per cm3. In addition, this bubble emits X-rays and these extend over about a thousand light years around this system.
An incredible discovery: they discover an interstellar tunnel heading towards Centauro
The tunnel, named “centaur tunnel“, appears to connect the LHB to another region of hot gas, perhaps the Loop I superbubble. However, the exact location of the other end of the tunnel has not yet been confirmed.
This discovery suggests that there could be a network of similar tunnels in the interstellar mediumformed by bursts of energy released by stars.
The team also observed a marked temperature gradient within the LHB, indicating that supernova explosions heated the gas unevenly. The presence of the iron isotope 60 in Earth’s deep marine crust, which can only be created during supernovae, supports the theory that these explosions occurred within the LHB over the past few million years .
The fundamental instrument for discovery: a telescope
He eROSITA telescope was essential for this discovery. Its ability to observe the entire sky with X-rays every six months allowed scientists to obtain a detailed three-dimensional image of the LHB and detect the Centaur tunnel.
Additionally, the location of the telescope, 1.5 million kilometers from Earthbeyond the geocorona, allows us to obtain spectra free from contamination of soft X-rays emitted by our atmosphere.
This discovery opens new avenues of research on the structure of the interstellar medium and the influence of supernovae on our space environment. Scientists hope to use eROSITA and future X-ray observatories study the network of interstellar tunnels in more detail and better understand the past and present of our solar system.
One of the investigations that Yeung is most interested in is the state of the plasma in the LHB. These studies, as they point out in BBC World“could reveal traces of an explanation of supernova that happened not so long ago“.
Finally, Yeung noted that “there are many superbubbles in the solar district and, beyond, like the eROSITA bubbles, the largest X-ray structure in the sky, whose origin remains a mystery.
