Sh2-101, the Tulip Nebula and Cygnus X-1 (Frank Zoltowski)

Celestial hemisphere: Northern · Constellation: Cygnus (Cyg)

Sh2-101, the Tulip Nebula and Cygnus X-1, Frank Zoltowski

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Sh2-101, the Tulip Nebula and Cygnus X-1

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Sh2-101, the Tulip Nebula and Cygnus X-1

SH2-101, the Tulip Nebula and the Cygnus X-1 bow shock in SHO palette.

As an old timer, I remember the film days when showing off astro photos to kids and getting asked about every visible dust spec if that is a black hole. Well I finally have something to show of my own work that is a result of a black hole.

Cygnus X-1 was discovered in 1964 during a rocket flight and is one of the most studied x-ray objects. It is widely accepted to be a black hole orbiting the 9th magnitude star HDE 226868 (SAO 69181). The system is about 2000 parsecs away.

Matter from HDE 226868 falling into into the black hole creates an accretion disk. Part of the released energy is dissipated as jets of particles aligned perpendicular to the accretion disk that flow at relativistic velocities. As the jets impinge on the interstellar medium, an energized bow shock ring is produced. This ring is visible as the blue arc (primarily OIII, but also visible in Ha) to the north of HDE 226868 (right center of the image). Since the interstellar medium has a lower density to the south, no ring is produced. The jets have not been observed at optical wavelengths. HDE 226868 is the brighter of the two stars aligned north/south near the “center” of the bow shock arc.

This has been on my to do list for a while and I didn't know if I could get it with my equipment. But efforts of others on this site show the bow shock, so despite the poor weather this summer, it was my top target. Framing it with the Tulip Nebula gives a good image for the effort even if the bow shock was not visible.

With some help from the comments, I made some changes to the color balance in the revision to get a more pleasing palette. Thank you...

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Sh2-101, the Tulip Nebula and Cygnus X-1

Sh2-101, the Tulip Nebula and Cygnus X-1

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Sh2-101, the Tulip Nebula and Cygnus X-1

Sh2-101, the Tulip Nebula and Cygnus X-1

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