June 8, 2009
Somewhere between the hydrogen and the starlight, between the gravity and the grace, the universe conspired to bring you into being.
Possible Jet Blown Shells Near Microquasar Cygnus X-1
Birthday · June 8, 2009
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APOD published June 8, 2009. Credit: Steve Cullen (lightbuckets.com). A publication-date match, not a photo taken on your date. Independent of NASA.
What happens to matter that falls toward an energetic black hole? In the case of Cygnus X-1, perhaps little of that matter actually makes it in. Infalling gas may first collide not only with itself but with an accretion disk of swirling material surrounding the black hole. The result may be a microquasar that glows across the electromagnetic spectrum and produces powerful jets that expel much of the infalling matter back into the cosmos at near light speed before it can even approach the black hole's event horizon. Confirmation that black hole jets may create expanding shells has come recently from the discovery of shells surrounding Cygnus X-1. Pictured above on the upper right is one such shell quite possibly created by the jet of microquasar and black hole candidate Cygnus X-1. Rolling your cursor over the image will bring up an annotated version. The physical processes that create the black hole jets is a topic that continues to be researched.
Image credit: Steve Cullen (lightbuckets.com)