Astronauts have reported new observations on the first black hole ever discovered, according to a study published Friday.
Astronomers at the National Astronomical Observatories (NAOC) under the Chinese Academy of Sciences collaborated with researchers from the United States and Australia and described their findings in three papers published in the Science and Astrophysical Journal.
In the black hole system, Cygnus X-1, there is a mass-stellar black hole with a mass of sun 21 that orbits at a speed close to the speed of light, according to the study.
Cygnus X-1 is one of the closest black holes to Earth. It was discovered in 1964. In 2011, astronomers measured the speed and mass of Cygnus X-1 for the first time.
In the latest study, astronomers used the Very Long Baseline Array, a system of 10 radio telescopes located in the United States, along with an ingenious way to re-measure the distance of the black hole from Earth – 7,240 light-years.
With the latest distance data, researchers reassessed the size of Cygnus X-1. It was found to be 21 times the mass of the sun, a 50 percent increase from previous estimates.
“Using the updated measurements for the mass of the black hole and the distance from Earth, we were able to confirm that Cygnus X-1 spins remarkably fast, very close to the speed of light and faster than any other black hole found so far, “said Gou Lijun at the NAOC, one of the study ‘s authors.