The Perseus-Taurus Shell (also shortened to the Per-Tau shell) is a near-spherical cavity in the interstellar medium, 500

light-years A light-year, alternatively spelled light year (ly or lyr), is a unit of length used to express astronomical distances and is equal to exactly , which is approximately 9.46 trillion km or 5.88 trillion mi. As defined by the International Astro ...

wide, located in the Perseus-Taurus constellations. A team from the Harvard Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics led by Catherine Zucker and Shmuel Bialy discovered the structure in 2021. Scientists believe that it appeared following the explosions of ancient

supernovae A supernova (: supernovae or supernovas) is a powerful and luminous explosion of a star. A supernova occurs during the last evolutionary stages of a massive star, or when a white dwarf is triggered into runaway nuclear fusion. The original ob ...

Molecular clouds A molecular cloud—sometimes called a stellar nursery if star formation is occurring within—is a type of interstellar cloud of which the density and size permit absorption nebulae, the formation of molecules (most commonly molecular hydrogen, ...

surround the sphere-shape cavity.

References

Superbubbles {{astronomy-stub