The search for the origin of the Local Bubble redivivus |
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| Authors: | B Fuchs D Breitschwerdt M A de Avillez C Dettbarn C Flynn |
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| Institution: | Astronomisches Rechen-Institut, ZAH, Mönchhofstraße 12-14, D-69120 Heidelberg, Germany;Institut für Astronomie der Universität Wien, Türkenschanzstraße 17, A-1180 Wien, Austria;Department of Mathematics, University of Évora, R. Romão Ramalho 59, 7000 Évora, Portugal;Tuorla Observatory, University of Turku, Väisäläntie 20, FI-21500 Piikkiö, Finland |
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| Abstract: | We present a new unbiased search and analysis of all B stars in the solar neighbourhood (within a volume of 400 pc diameter) using the Arivel data base to track down the remains of the OB associations, which hosted the supernovae (SNe) responsible for the Local Bubble (LB) in the interstellar gas. We find after careful dereddening and by comparison with theoretical isochrones, that besides the Upper Scorpius the Upper Centaurus Lupus and Lower Centaurus Crux subgroups are the youngest stellar associations in the solar neighbourhood with ages of 20–30 Myr, in agreement with previous work. In search for the 'smoking gun' of the origin of the LB, we have traced the paths of the associations back into the past and found that they entered the present bubble region 10–15 Myr ago. We argue that the LB began to form then and estimate that 14–20 SNe have gone off since. It is shown that the implied energy input is sufficient to excavate a bubble of the presently observed size. |
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| Keywords: | open clusters and associations: individual: Sco OB2 solar neighbourhood ISM: individual: local bubble |
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