Black holes are one of the greatest mysteries of the universe, and they are even hard to imagine. However, thanks to a recently released image by NASA, we can now visualize black holes a little more clearly.
The mysterious rings of light around a black hole have been captured by NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory and the Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory. These X-ray images have revealed this seemingly invisible phenomenon.
This black hole exists in a binary star system with a companion star, and the gravity of the black hole has pulled material from this star, forming a ring around it.
X-ray ring around a black hole with its companion star. These rings are created by the phenomenon of “light echo.” (Photo: NASA)
The black hole and its companion star are called V404 Cygni, located 7,800 light-years away from Earth. This star has a mass about half that of our Sun.
The Swift Observatory, which has been operational since 2004, detected streams of X-rays being emitted from this star system in June 2015. This outburst created visible energy rings in the X-ray images.
The phenomenon that creates the rings is called “light echo.” They are formed in this star system when the X-ray outburst from the binary star system reflects off dust clouds in the space between the V404 Cygni system and Earth. Space is often filled with dust, but it resembles layers of smoke made up of tiny particles.
The new images from NASA combined X-ray observations from the Chandra Observatory with data collected from the Pan-STARRS telescope in Hawaii. In 2015, Chandra observed this star system on July 11 and July 25, while Swift observed it on June 30 and August 25.
These rings of light can help scientists gain a better understanding of the black hole in the V404 Cygni star system as well as the space between this star system and Earth.
The diameter of the rings also helps researchers determine the distance of the dust clouds that create these rings. The larger the rings, the closer the dust clouds are to Earth.
