X-ray technology reveals never-before-seen matter around black hole

In an international collaboration between Japan and Sweden, scientists clarified how gravity affects the shape of matter near the black hole in binary system Cygnus X-1. Their findings, which were published in Nature Astronomy this month, may help scientists further understand the physics of strong gravity and the evolution of black holes and galaxies.

Near the center of the constellation of Cygnus is a star orbiting the first black hole discovered in the universe. Together, they form a binary system known as Cygnus X-1. This black hole is also one of the brightest sources of X-rays in the sky. However, the geometry of matter that gives rise to this light was uncertain. The research team revealed this information from a new technique called X-ray polarimetry.

Continued...
Source

Credit: NASA, ESA, Martin Kornmesser

The black hole in Cygnus X-1 is one of the brightest sources of X-rays in the sky. The light near the black hole comes from matter siphoned off its companion star.

Source / Image Courtesy

Credit: Masako Hayashi, CORE-U, Hiroshima University

Polarization filters light so that it vibrates in one direction.

Source / Image Courtesy

Credit: Fumiya Imazato, Hiroshima University

representation of two competing black hole models: lamp-post and extended. The black dot is the black hole, blue is its accretion disk, and red is the corona.

Source / Image Courtesy

Cygnus X-1 is a so-called stellar-mass black hole, a class of black holes that comes from the collapse of a massive star.