A large, long-lived, slowly-expanding superbubble across the Perseus arm

Bingqiu Chen; Guangxing Li; Haibo Yuan; Maosheng Xiang; Jixuan Zhou; Pinjian Chen; Martin Krause; Ashley Coombs

doi:10.1038/s41467-025-65591-5

A large, long-lived, slowly-expanding superbubble across the Perseus arm

Bingqiu Chen
, Guangxing Li
, Haibo Yuan
, Maosheng Xiang
, Jixuan Zhou
, Pinjian Chen
, Martin Krause
, Ashley Coombs

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

Abstract

Stellar feedback is a crucial mechanism in galactic evolution, as demonstrated by the widespread bubbles observed with JWST. In this study, we combine data from Gaia and LAMOST to obtain a sample of young O-B2 stars with full three-dimensional velocity information. Focusing on the largest known superbubble in the Milky Way, we identify groups of O-B2 stars at its periphery, exhibiting a transverse velocity of 25.8 km s−1 and an expansion velocity of 6.2 km s−1. Using these velocities, we calculate a crossing time tcross ≈ 20 Myr and an expansion timescale texpansion ≈ 80 Myr. We estimate a survival timescale tsurvival ≈ 250 Myr and a supernova interval tSN≈0.1 Myr. Together with the Galactic shear timescale tshear ≈ 30 Myr, these values satisfy tSN

Original language	English
Article number	10558
Number of pages	9
Journal	Nature Communications
Volume	16
Issue number	1
Early online date	26 Nov 2025
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-025-65591-5
Publication status	E-pub ahead of print - 26 Nov 2025

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© 2025 The Author(s). This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License. To view a copy of this licence, visit http:// creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/.
Final published version, 1.41 MBLicence: CC BY-NC-ND

Cite this

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title = "A large, long-lived, slowly-expanding superbubble across the Perseus arm",

abstract = "Stellar feedback is a crucial mechanism in galactic evolution, as demonstrated by the widespread bubbles observed with JWST. In this study, we combine data from Gaia and LAMOST to obtain a sample of young O-B2 stars with full three-dimensional velocity information. Focusing on the largest known superbubble in the Milky Way, we identify groups of O-B2 stars at its periphery, exhibiting a transverse velocity of 25.8 km s−1 and an expansion velocity of 6.2 km s−1. Using these velocities, we calculate a crossing time tcross ≈ 20 Myr and an expansion timescale texpansion ≈ 80 Myr. We estimate a survival timescale tsurvival ≈ 250 Myr and a supernova interval tSN≈0.1 Myr. Together with the Galactic shear timescale tshear ≈ 30 Myr, these values satisfy tSN",

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AU - Chen, Bingqiu

AU - Li, Guangxing

AU - Yuan, Haibo

AU - Xiang, Maosheng

AU - Zhou, Jixuan

AU - Chen, Pinjian

AU - Krause, Martin

AU - Coombs, Ashley

N1 - © 2025 The Author(s). This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License. To view a copy of this licence, visit http:// creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/.

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N2 - Stellar feedback is a crucial mechanism in galactic evolution, as demonstrated by the widespread bubbles observed with JWST. In this study, we combine data from Gaia and LAMOST to obtain a sample of young O-B2 stars with full three-dimensional velocity information. Focusing on the largest known superbubble in the Milky Way, we identify groups of O-B2 stars at its periphery, exhibiting a transverse velocity of 25.8 km s−1 and an expansion velocity of 6.2 km s−1. Using these velocities, we calculate a crossing time tcross ≈ 20 Myr and an expansion timescale texpansion ≈ 80 Myr. We estimate a survival timescale tsurvival ≈ 250 Myr and a supernova interval tSN≈0.1 Myr. Together with the Galactic shear timescale tshear ≈ 30 Myr, these values satisfy tSN

AB - Stellar feedback is a crucial mechanism in galactic evolution, as demonstrated by the widespread bubbles observed with JWST. In this study, we combine data from Gaia and LAMOST to obtain a sample of young O-B2 stars with full three-dimensional velocity information. Focusing on the largest known superbubble in the Milky Way, we identify groups of O-B2 stars at its periphery, exhibiting a transverse velocity of 25.8 km s−1 and an expansion velocity of 6.2 km s−1. Using these velocities, we calculate a crossing time tcross ≈ 20 Myr and an expansion timescale texpansion ≈ 80 Myr. We estimate a survival timescale tsurvival ≈ 250 Myr and a supernova interval tSN≈0.1 Myr. Together with the Galactic shear timescale tshear ≈ 30 Myr, these values satisfy tSN

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A large, long-lived, slowly-expanding superbubble across the Perseus arm

Abstract

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