According to astronomers, the bubble, called an astrosphere, completely surrounds the juvenile star. Winds from the star's surface are blowing up the bubble and filling it with hot gas as it expands into much cooler galactic gas and dust surrounding the star. The Sun has a similar bubble around it, which scientists call the heliosphere, created by the solar wind.
The heliosphere extends far beyond the planets in our solar system and protects Earth from cosmic radiation. This is the first image of an astrosphere astronomers have obtained around a star similar to the Sun. The image shows slightly extended emission, rather than a single point of light as seen for other such stars.
The name or specific designation of the young, Sun-like star observed has not been disclosed. The implications of this discovery for understanding star formation or cosmic radiation protection in other solar systems remain to be studied.