Chandra Observations of MBM 12 and Models of the Local Bubble

Chandra observations toward the nearby molecular cloud MBM 12 show unexpectedly strong and nearly equal foreground O VIII and O VII emission. As the observed portion of MBM 12 is optically thick at these energies, the emission lines must be formed nearby, coming from either the Local Bubble (LB) or charge exchange with ions from the Sun. Equilibrium models for the LB predict stronger O VII than O VIII, so these results suggest that the LB is far from equilibrium or that a substantial portion of O VIII is from another source, such as charge exchange within the solar system. Despite the likely contamination, we can combine our results with other EUV and X-ray observations to reject LB models that posit a cool recombining plasma as the source of LB X-rays.