Cygnus X-1, a binary star system very first found in 1964, consists of among the closest great voids to Earth. New observations of this great void, the very first spotted, have actually led astronomers to question what they understand about the Universe’s most strange items.
An worldwide group, consisting of scientists from the National Astronomical Observatories of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (NAOC), just recently discovered that the stellar-mass great void in the Cygnus X-1 double star has a mass 21 times the mass of the Sun and turns at a speed near the speed of light.
The research study was released in Science on February 18, 2021.
Recent observations reveal the great void in the Cygnus X-1 system is 21 times the mass of the Sun—a 50 percent boost on previous price quotes. To kind such a huge great void, astronomers needed to modify their price quotes of just how much mass stars lose by means of outstanding winds. Credit: International Centre for Radio Astronomy Research
The scientists utilized the Very Long Baseline Array — a continent-sized radio telescope comprised of 10 meals spread out throughout the United States — together with a creative method to determine ranges in area.
“If we can view the same object from different locations, we can calculate its distance away from us by measuring how far the object appears to move relative to the background,” stated Prof. James Miller-Jones, a scientist at Australia’s Curtin University and the International Centre for Radio Astronomy Research (ICRAR), who is very first author of the research study.
“If you hold your finger out in front of your eyes and view it with one eye at a time, you’ll notice your finger appears to jump from one spot to another. It’s exactly the same principle,” stated Prof. Miller-Jones.
An animation revealing the Cygnus X-1 system, including a great void in orbit with a huge star. Recent observations by radio telescopes have actually discovered the system is 20 percent even more away than formerly believed, suggesting the great void is 21 times the mass of the Sun, making it the most huge stellar-mass great void ever spotted without using gravitational waves. Credit: International Centre for Radio Astronomy Research
Over 6 days, the scientists observed a complete orbit of the great void around its buddy blue supergiant variable star. They then compared the brand-new information with observations of the exact same system taken with the exact same telescope variety in 2011. Their brand-new observations and measurements revealed that the system is even more away than formerly believed.
With this brand-new range info, the scientists re-estimated the mass of the Cygnus X-1 great void and discovered it to be more than 20 times the mass of our Sun — a 50 percent boost over previous price quotes.
Prof. GOU Lijun of NAOC is a co-author of the research study and led the research study’s spin measurement.
Astronomers observed the Cygnus X-1 system from various angles utilizing the orbit of the Earth around the Sun to determine the viewed motion of the system versus the background stars. This permitted them to fine-tune the range to the system and for that reason the mass of the great void. Credit: International Centre for Radio Astronomy Research
“Using the updated measurements for the black hole’s mass and its distance away from Earth, we were able to confirm that Cygnus X-1 is spinning incredibly quickly — very close to the speed of light and faster than any other black hole found to date,” stated Prof. GOU.
Co-author Prof. Ilya Mandel, a researcher from Australia’s Monash University and the ARC Centre of Excellence in Gravitational Wave Discovery (OzGrav), stated the great void is so huge and turning so quick that it is in fact tough astronomers’ ideas on how great voids formed.
“Stars lose mass to their surrounding environment through stellar winds that blow away from their surface. But to make a black hole this heavy and rotating so quickly, we need to dial down the amount of mass that bright stars lose during their lifetimes,” he stated.
The great void in the Cygnus X-1 system started life as a star roughly 60 times the mass of the Sun and collapsed 10s of countless years earlier. Incredibly, it’s orbiting its buddy star every five-and-a-half days at simply one-fifth the range in between the Earth and the Sun.
Accompanying the publication in Science, 2 more documents concentrating on various elements of this work have actually likewise been released today in The Astrophysical Journal.
Read First Black Hole Ever Detected – Cygnus X-1 – Is Much More Massive Than We Thought for more on this research study.
References:
“Cygnus X-1 contains a 21-solar mass black hole – implications for massive star winds” by James C. A. Miller-Jones, Arash Bahramian, Jerome A. Orosz, Ilya Mandel, Lijun Gou, Thomas J. Maccarone, Coenraad J. Neijssel, Xueshan Zhao, Janusz Ziólkowski, Mark J. Reid, Phil Uttley, Xueying Zheng, Do-Young Byun, Richard Dodson, Victoria Grinberg, Taehyun Jung, Jeong-Sook Kim, Benito Marcote, Sera Markoff, María J. Rioja, Anthony P. Rushton, David M. Russell, Gregory R. Sivakoff, Alexandra J. Tetarenko, Valeriu Tudose and Joern Wilms, 18 February 2021, Science.
DOI: 10.1126/science.abb3363
“Reestimating the Spin Parameter of the Black Hole in Cygnus X-1” by Xueshan Zhao, Lijun Gou, Yanting Dong, Xueying Zheng, James F. Steiner, James C.A. Miller-Jones, Arash Bahramian, Jerome A. Orosz and Ye Feng, 18 February 2021, The Astrophysical Journal.
DOI: 10.3847/1538-4357/abbcd6
arXiv: 2102.09093
“Wind mass-loss rates of stripped stars inferred from Cygnus X-1” by Coenraad J. Neijssel, Serena Vinciguerra, Alejandro Vigna-Gomez, Ryosuke Hirai, James C. A. Miller-Jones, Arash Bahramian, Thomas J. Maccarone and Ilya Mandel, 18 February 2021, The Astrophysical Journal.
DOI: 10.3847/1538-4357/abde4a
arXiv: 2102.09092
