Neighboring black hole Cygnus X-1 is larger than astronomers expected

 

Neighboring black hole Cygnus X-1 is larger than astronomers expected 

Deonvea Waterman April, 06, 2021

 Cygnus Background Cygnus X-1 is known as a primary discovery for black holes. “In 1964 Cygnus X-1 was detected during a sub-orbital rocket launch by an instrument that can identify radiation called the Geiger Counter.” The Geiger Counter instrument name is eponymous to the German physicist Hans Geiger. Cygnus X-1 is considered to be one of the closest black holes Physicists and Astronomers study from Earth. The Universe Today published an article with essential information regarding what we know about Cygnus X-1 so far. “We now know that it is an x-ray binary, where the black hole closely orbits a blue supergiant star known as HDE 226868. The two orbit each other so closely that material from the star is captured by the black hole. As the stellar material becomes superheated in the accretion disk of the black hole, it emits the powerful x-rays we first detected.” In 1974 there was prolonged debate between two physicists Kip Thorne and Stephen Hawking if Cygnus X-1 was considered a black hole which lasted for almost 30 years. Telescopes in the 1990’s became more advanced and were able to accumulate sufficient information to re-evaluate Hawking's stance on Cygnus X-1 not being a black hole. 

Cygnus is approximately 6,000 light years away from Earth and 15 times the mass of the sun however, The journal Science published new research data that Cygnus is further and more massive than astronomers expected. The new studies concluded that “Cygnus is approximately 7,200 light years away which is 20% more than previous calculations. Cygnus is also suspected to have a 50% increase in mass size which would make the black hole 20 times larger than our Sun for comparison.” 

Still being able to collect data on black that has been known for years is intriguing and questions how we analyze the evolution time of stars in today’s world. 

References and Sources: 

https://www.icrar.org/biggest-black-hole/ 

https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.abb3363 

https://earthsky.org/space/cygnus-x-1-black-hole-more-massive-farther/ 

https://scitechdaily.com/first-black-hole-ever-detected-cygnus-x-1-is-much-more-massive-thanwe-thought/ 

https://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/basic-ref/students/science-101/what-is-a-geiger-counter.html 

https://www.universetoday.com/150264/cygnus-x-1-was-the-first-black-hole-ever-found-new-me asurements-show-its-much-more-massive-than-previously-believed/