{"id":15683,"date":"2025-12-16T17:00:00","date_gmt":"2025-12-16T16:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/holistic.news\/en\/?p=15683"},"modified":"2025-12-15T12:17:09","modified_gmt":"2025-12-15T11:17:09","slug":"canis-major-constellation-studied-ancient-stars-linger","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/holistic.news\/en\/canis-major-constellation-studied-ancient-stars-linger\/","title":{"rendered":"Ancient Stars Skimmed Earth\u2014Now Our Cosmic Shield Is Fading"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

A Stellar Close Encounter from Millions of Years Ago<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

4.5 million years ago, two stars narrowly missed Earth\u2014passing just 32 light-years away. Today, they are hundreds of light-years further and form the Canis Major constellation<\/strong>. Scientists have just discovered that their flyby had extraordinary consequences.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A Brightness That Would Eclipse Sirius Itself<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

If these two stars were above us today, their combined glow would effortlessly replace the lighting of a large stadium.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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“These two stars would have been four to six times brighter than today’s Sirius, the brightest star in our current night sky,” said Michael Shull, an astrophysicist at the University of Colorado, quoted by Space.com.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

However, their brilliance is only the prelude to a larger mystery hidden in the interstellar space surrounding us.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What Is Really Happening Around the Sun?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The Solar System drifts through a massive void known as the Local Bubble. Yet, at its center lies something unique\u2014a small “island” of gas, or the local interstellar clouds. One of the greatest cosmic enigmas hides precisely here.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Although nothing nearby should be emitting strong radiation, up to 20 percent of the hydrogen and 40 percent of the helium there is electrically charged<\/strong>. Therefore, where did the energy come from that so intensely “heated up” this gas?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Cosmic Puzzle Under Scrutiny<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

To unravel the mystery, a team of scientists, including those from the University of North Carolina and the University of Colorado in the USA, reconstructed the history of our cosmic neighborhood over the last few million years. For this purpose, researchers created a simulation that included the Sun’s<\/a> movement, the stars’ positions, and the matter drifting between them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It turned out that several powerful sources influenced the ionization level. These include:<\/p>\n\n\n\n