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Black Holes Encyclopedia
Stats

Alternate Names

Cygnus XR-1

Type

Stellar mass

Location

In the constellation Cygnus

Finder Chart

Distance

6,000 to 10,000 light-years

Mass

5 to 10 times the mass of the Sun

Size

Diameter 20-40 miles (30-60 km), equal to the size of a large American city

Discovery Methods

Images

Cygnus X-1

Imagining Cygnus X-1

An artist's concept of Cygnus X-1 shows hot gas from the giant blue star flowing toward the black hole, forming a bright accretion disk.


Cygnus X-1

This gamma-ray image from the Integral satellite shows Cygnus X-1 (the large white blob at center) and Cygnus X-3, which is an accretion disk encircling a neutron star.


Spinning and Non-Spinning Black Holes

Data from orbiting X-ray observatories show how the gravitational field of the Cygnus X-1 black hole accelerates gas around it.


This document was last modified: September 8, 2011.