Local flake

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The local flake (center, yellow) within the local bubble (blue, circular)

The Local Interstellar Cloud ( Engl. Local Interstellar Cloud , LIC), sometimes Local Interstellar Cloud ( Local Fluff ) called, is a cloud of interstellar matter that currently provided by the sun and its system will be migrated, with the sun itself through its heliosphere from most of the particles of the local flake are shielded.

The local flake, in turn, is located within the local bubble , a region of the Milky Way with little interstellar mass. The cloud is currently moving away from a large cluster of stars called the Scorpius-Centaurus Association .

properties

The cloud has a diameter of almost 30 light years (for comparison: diameter of the local bubble in the galactic level at least 300 light years, diameter of the Milky Way approx. 100,000 light years). In the local flake there are an average of 0.3 atoms per cubic centimeter with varying particle density . The temperature of the particles in the cloud is around 6000 Kelvin . The local bubble, on the other hand, has a density of around 0.001 atoms per cubic centimeter at a temperature of around 1 million Kelvin.

The sun in the local flake

The solar system has been crossing the local flake for approx. 100,000 years and is expected to leave it again in 10,000 to 20,000 years. Through its magnetic field and the solar wind , the sun creates a heliosphere with which it largely shields the effects of the local flake. In 2019, interstellar iron was discovered by Munich researchers in the Antarctic, which was attributed to the local flake.

More stars in the local flake

In addition to the sun and its system, five other stars near the sun are surrounded by the cloud:

Altair (in the constellation eagle )
Wega (in the lyre )
Arctur (in the bear guardian )
Fomalhaut (in the southern fish )
Alpha Centauri (in Centaur )

Web links

The Local Flake - Astronomy Picture of the Day of August 29, 2010.

Individual evidence

↑ Our Local Galactic Neighborhood. In: jpl.nasa.gov. nasa.gov, archived from the original on November 21, 2013 ; accessed on January 23, 2017 .
^ UCR Space Physics. In: ucr.edu. spacephysics.ucr.edu, accessed November 20, 2015 .
↑ D. Koll, al. et .: Interstellar 60Fe in Antarctica . In: Physical Review Letters . 2019. doi : 10.1103 / PhysRevLett.123.072701 .

[1] Our Local Galactic Neighborhood. In: jpl.nasa.gov. nasa.gov, archived from the original on November 21, 2013 ; accessed on January 23, 2017 .

[2] UCR Space Physics. In: ucr.edu. spacephysics.ucr.edu, accessed November 20, 2015 .

[Interstellar_Iron-3] D. Koll, al. et .: Interstellar 60Fe in Antarctica . In: Physical Review Letters . 2019. doi : 10.1103 / PhysRevLett.123.072701 .