In most of these systems, a stream of gas flows directly from the star toward the black hole, forming around it a broad, flattened structure called an accretion disk. The enlarged spheres also cover up visible distortions produced by the black holes’ gravitational effects. But its surface – called its event horizon – spans only about 77 miles (124 kilometers). Cygnus X-1, with the largest companion star shown, is the first black hole ever confirmed and weighs about 21 times more than the Sun. While the black holes appear on a scale reflecting their masses, all are depicted using spheres larger than actual size. The star colors range from blue-white to reddish, representing temperatures from 5 times hotter to 45% cooler than our Sun. The view of each binary replicates how we see it from Earth. ![]() The systems are shown at the same physical scale, and their orbital motion is sped up by nearly 22,000 times. This visualization shows 22 X-ray binaries in our Milky Way galaxy and its nearest neighbor, the Large Magellanic Cloud, that host confirmed stellar-mass black holes. Watch this video on the NASA Goddard YouTube channel. The black holes themselves are shown larger than in reality using spheres scaled to reflect their masses.Ĭredit: NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center and Scientific Visualization Studio The largest disk shown, belonging to a binary called GRS 1915, spans a distance greater than that separating Mercury from our Sun. The accretion disks use a different color scheme because they sport even higher temperatures than the stars. In others, like the famous system called Cygnus X-1, the star produces a hefty outflow that is partly swept up by the black hole’s gravity to form the disk. In most of these systems, a stream of matter from the star forms an accretion disk around the black hole. Star colors ranging from blue-white to reddish represent temperatures from 5 times hotter to 45% cooler than our Sun. The view of each system reflects how we see it from Earth. This visualization presents 22 X-ray binary systems that host confirmed black holes at the same scale, with their orbits sped up by about 22,000 times. Learn more about the best-known black hole systems in our galaxy and its neighbor, the Large Magellanic Cloud. ![]() The black holes themselves are shown larger than in reality using spheres scaled to reflect their masses.Credit: NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center and Scientific Visualization StudioMusic: "Event Horizon" from Gravity. ![]() ![]()
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