Scientists measure the power of jets blasting from a black hole
AP News • • general
Key Points:
- Scientists have, for the first time, measured the instantaneous power of jets from a black hole, finding the jet power from Cygnus X-1 to be equivalent to 10,000 suns.
- The jets from this black hole-star system travel at about 355 million mph, roughly half the speed of light, and are influenced by the stellar wind from its blue supergiant companion.
- The research, based on 18 years of high-resolution radio imaging and computer modeling, revealed that 10% of the energy from matter falling into the black hole is carried away by these jets.
- Cygnus X-1, located 7,200 light-years away in the Milky Way's Cygnus constellation, is a binary system where the black hole continuously pulls gas from its companion star to fuel the jets.
- This discovery offers new insights into how black hole jets contribute to shaping galaxies, and researchers plan to apply similar methods to study jet power in other black hole systems.
