Alternate Names

Cygnus XR-1

Type

Stellar mass

Location

In the constellation Cygnus

Finder Chart

Distance

6,000 to 10,000 light-years

Mass

15 times the mass of the Sun

Size

Diameter 55 miles (90 km), equal to the size of a large American city

Discovery Methods

• Measuring the motions of gas

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. [ESA/Hubble European Space Agency Information Centre (M. Kornmesser, L. L. Christensen)]

This document was last modified: February 11, 2007.