shape of matter around Cygnus X-1 black hole tagged posts

A representation of two competing black hole models: lamp-post and extended. The black dot is the black hole, blue is its accretion disk, and red is the corona.
Credit: Fumiya Imazato, Hiroshima University

X-ray polarimetry resolves shape of matter around Cygnus X-1 black hole. In an international collaboration between Japan and Sweden, scientists clarified how gravity affects the shape of matter near the black hole in binary system Cygnus X-1. Their findings, which were published in Nature Astronomy this month, may help scientists further understand the physics of strong gravity and the evolution of black holes and galaxies.

Near the center of the constellation of Cygnus is a star orbiting the first black hole discovered in the universe...