Astellar-wind bubble is a cavitylight-years across filled with hot gas blown into theinterstellar medium by the high-velocity (several thousand km/s)stellar wind from a single massivestar oftypeO orB. Weaker stellar winds also blow bubble structures, which are also calledastrospheres. Theheliosphere blown by thesolar wind, within which all the majorplanets of theSolar System are embedded, is a small example of a stellar-wind bubble.

Stellar-wind bubbles have a two-shock structure.^[1] The freely-expanding stellar wind hits an inner termination shock, where its kinetic energy is thermalized, producing 10⁶ K,X-ray-emittingplasma. The hot, high-pressure, shocked wind expands, driving a shock into the surrounding interstellar gas. If the surrounding gas is dense enough (number densities${\displaystyle n>0.1{\text{ cm}}^{-3}}$ or so), the swept-up gas radiatively cools far faster than the hot interior, forming a thin, relatively dense shell around the hot, shocked wind.

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