ReutersFeb 19, 2021 07:15:14 IST
By Will Dunham
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – A new study has revealed new information about the first black hole ever discovered – which was spotted in 1964 and became the subject of friendly bets between eminent scientists – into that it is larger than previously known.
Researchers said Thursday that new ideas about the black hole of Cygnus X-1, torn in a stellar marriage with a large and light star, show that it is 21 times the mass of our sun, about 50% larger what we previously believed.
Although it is still one of the closest black holes, they found it to be a little further away than previously estimated, at 7,200 light years – the distance light travels in a year, 5.9 trillion miles ( 9.5 trillion km) – from Earth.
Black holes are very dense, with gravity pulls so brutal that not even light escapes. Some – the “supermassive” black holes – are quite large, like the one at the Milky Way galaxy center 4 million times the mass of the sun. Smaller “stellar-mass” black holes occupy a single star mass.
Cygnus X-1 is the most recognizable black hole at Milky Way and among the strongest X-ray sources visible from Earth, said astronaut James Miller-Jones of Curtin University and the International Center for Research Radio Astronomy in Australia, led the study published in the journal Science.
This black hole spins so fast, almost at a light speed, that it approaches the highest level seen under Albert Einstein ‘s physics theory of general relativity, Miller – Jones said.
He wears material blowing from the surface of the companion star he closes tightly, “blue blue” about 40 times the beauty of our sun. It started there 4 million to 5 million years ago as a star up to 75 times the mass of the sun and fell into a black hole a few tens of thousands of years ago.
The research included data from the True Baseline Array radio telescope containing 10 U.S. observation stations.
After the Cygnus X-1 was first introduced as a black hole, a bet was placed between physicist Stephen Hawking, who objected to being one, and Kip Thorne, who placed a bet e. Hawking eventually surrendered, due to a subscription to Thorne’s Pentne magazine.
“Of course, I didn’t have any wagers riding on those decisions,” Miller-Jones said.
(Reporting by Will Dunham; Editing by Peter Cooney)
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