blackhole mindgames

[nytecam]

I know the forum loves a challenge in blackholes... The pic taken last night of an exotic object in the sky in Cygnus the Swan where two stars form a binary pair with an orbital period of 5.6days and separated by 0.2AU. Only one star can be seen so its companion is assumed to be a blackhole which can however be 'seen' indirectly in X-rays as one of the brightest X-ray sources in the sky. See link

At 6000LY away the two 'stars' would not be resolved from earth even if both where 'visible' - the bright star gives it invisible companion away as it 'wobbles' over the orbital 5.6day period via spectroscopic observation.

Us amateurs are bystanders in this work so I've just marked the star's position below.

As you may have heard a blackhole is a reduced to a 'singularity' but still has 'size' - according to Prof Morison, who gave a talk to our astro soc Friday, a sun-like mass star in Cyg X-1 blackhole would shrink to much less than 1mm diameter - imagine our million mile diameter sun reduced to a tiny [but extremely heavy] poppy-seed - mind-games indeed.

[Littlesparrow]

Odd indeed Nytecam, will the black hole eventually suck in the bright star?

[nytecam]

Originally Posted by Littlesparrow

Odd indeed Nytecam, will the black hole eventually suck in the bright star?

Don't know but I won't be waiting around

[artdemole]

It is interesting. I think The sky At Night on BBC had this area being talked about only the other day.