The Local Bubble and the Galactic Neighborhood
			
		
		
		
			What surrounds the Sun in this neck of the 
Milky Way Galaxy?  
Our current best guess is depicted in the 
above map of the surrounding 1500 
light years constructed from various observations and deductions.  
Currently, the Sun is passing through a 
Local Interstellar Cloud 
(LIC), shown in violet, which is 
flowing away from the 
Scorpius-Centaurus Association of young stars.  
The LIC resides in a low-density hole in the 
interstellar medium (ISM) called the 
Local Bubble, shown in black.  
Nearby, high-density 
molecular clouds including the 
Aquila Rift surround star forming regions, 
each shown in orange.  
The Gum Nebula, shown in green, 
is a region of hot 
ionized 
hydrogen gas.  
Inside the Gum Nebula is the 
Vela Supernova Remnant, 
shown in pink, which is expanding to create 
fragmented shells of material like the 
LIC.  
Future observations should help astronomers 
discern more about the local Galactic Neighborhood and how it might have affected 
Earth's past climate.