Description
The Solar System has been traveling through the region currently occupied by the Local Bubble for the last five to ten million years. Its current location lies in the Local Interstellar Cloud, a minor region of denser material within the Bubble. The cloud formed where the Local Bubble and the Loop I Bubble met. The gas within the LIC has a density of approximately 0.1 atoms per cubic centimeter.
The Local Bubble is not spherical, but seems to be narrower in the galactic plane, becoming somewhat egg-shaped or elliptical, and may widen above and below the galactic plane, becoming shaped like an hourglass. It abuts other bubbles of less dense interstellar medium (ISM), including, in particular, the Loop I Bubble. The Loop I Bubble was created by supernovae and stellar winds in the Scorpius-Centaurus Association, some 500 light years from the Sun. The Loop I Bubble contains the star Antares (also known as Alpha Scorpii), as shown on the diagram above right. Other bubbles which are adjacent to the Local Bubble are the Loop II Bubble and the Loop III Bubble.
Read more about this topic: Local Bubble
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