Celestial hemisphere:  Northern  ·  Constellation: Cygnus (Cyg)  ·  Contains:  The star ηCyg
The black hole in the neighbourhood, Thomas
The black hole in the neighbourhood
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The black hole in the neighbourhood, Thomas
The black hole in the neighbourhood
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Description

Where is the black hole now? Look out for HD 226868 (about the middle of the picture) -> This is the companion star, a blue-white supergiant. The two objects orbit each other with a period of 5.6 days. The distance is about 14 million km. The star is constantly sucked off mass with M = -2.6 × 10-6 M(solar masses) per year. Position: Constellation Swan | Apparent brightness: 8.72 - 8.93 mag | Distance: about 7,500 light years

Cygnus X-1 was discovered in 1972 by the American astronomer Tom Bolton and is the first actual black hole to be detected.

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The black hole in the neighbourhood, Thomas