US EditionScientists Measure a Black Hole's Jet Power for the First Time
Researchers measured the jets’ instant power by tracking how a companion star’s wind bends them, finding output equal to 10,000 suns.
- On Thursday, researcher Steve Prabu reported the first-ever measurement of instantaneous jet power and speed from Cygnus X-1 using 18 years of high-resolution radio imaging data from a global telescope network.
- Cygnus X-1, a binary system in the Cygnus constellation, features a black hole pulling gas from a blue supergiant star that feeds the black hole, giving it "something to eat" and launch as jets, Prabu said.
- Jet power is equivalent to 10,000 suns, with speeds reaching roughly 355 million mph, while these "dancing jets" carry approximately 10% of the energy released as matter falls toward the black hole.
- Previously, jet power estimates relied on averaging data over tens of thousands of years; this direct measurement technique, based on computer modeling and wind-driven jet bending, enables instantaneous observations.
- Prabu plans to apply this technique to other black holes, building on work conducted at Curtin University, as better jet power data helps scientists understand how black holes shape galaxies through large-scale turbulence.
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31 Articles
The Independent
The Independent (US)Scientists discover black hole jets are as powerful as 10,000 suns
Led by the University of Oxford’s Steve Prabu, the international research team utilized 18 years of high-resolution radio imaging from a global telescope network
An international team of astrophysicists was able to measure for the first time the instantaneous power of jets expelled from a black hole.
For the first time, scientists have measured the amazing instant jet power coming out of a black hole. An international research team reported on Thursday that the jet power of this relatively close system of black hole and star equals 10,000 suns. They also tracked the jet speed: approximately 355 million miles per hour (540 million kilometers per hour), half the speed of light. Cygnus X-1, located at 7,200 light years away, not only has a blac…
A jet bent by a stellar wind in the black hole X-ray binary Cygnus X-1 - Nature Astronomy
Jets provide an important channel for kinetic feedback from accreting black holes into their environment, without which models of the formation of large-scale structure in the Universe fail to reproduce the observed properties of galaxies. Hence, an accurate measurement of jet power is critical for understanding black hole growth through accretion and also for quantifying the impact of kinetic feedback. However, the absence of instantaneous jet …
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