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The first bubble of hot gas seen around another star has been spotted around the "Moth," just 117 light-years away.
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A young, sun-like star reveals its protective sheath, or 'astrosphere', for the first time in this Chandra image.
(Image credit: X-ray: NASA/CXC/Johns Hopkins Univ./C.M. Lisse et al.; Infrared: NASA/ESA/STIS; Optical: NSF/NoirLab/CTIO/DECaPS2)
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Explore An account already exists for this email address, please log in. Subscribe to our newsletter quick factsWhat 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 Milky Way wrapped in a protective bubble of its own making, dubbed the heliosphere. And for the first time, astronomers have spotted a similar protective bubble forming around an alien star.
A star called HD 61005 has just been confirmed 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.
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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.
At the center of the image, there's a brilliant white X-ray core. Surrounding it is a neon-purple glow marking the astrosphere itself.
One of HD 61005’s most distinctive features is a wedge-shaped dust tail trailing behind it that looks like a pair of wings. This debris, left over from the star’s formation, has been swept backward as the star speeds through space, and its unusual shape has earned HD 61005 the nickname the "Moth.”
"There’s a saying about a moth being drawn to a flame," Brad Snios, a physicist formerly from the Harvard & Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, said in a statement. “In the case of HD 61005, the ‘Moth’ can’t easily escape from the flame because it was born around it.”
Sign up for the Live Science daily newsletter nowContact me with news and offers from other Future brandsReceive email from us on behalf of our trusted partners or sponsorsBy submitting your information you agree to the Terms & Conditions and Privacy Policy and are aged 16 or over.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.
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Jamie CarterSocial Links NavigationLive Science contributorJamie Carter is a Cardiff, U.K.-based freelance science journalist and a regular contributor to Live Science. He is the author of A Stargazing Program For Beginners and co-author of The Eclipse Effect, and leads international stargazing and eclipse-chasing tours. His work appears regularly in Space.com, Forbes, New Scientist, BBC Sky at Night, Sky & Telescope, and other major science and astronomy publications. He is also the editor of WhenIsTheNextEclipse.com.
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